According to a report from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), competition between home buyers is starting to pick up again after several months of sluggish sales in the Toronto area. The average price of a home in the area rose to $1,108,606 in March, up from $1,096,519 in February. This is the first time since May 2022 that the average home price has surpassed the average list price. While the current average price is still down almost 15 percent from the peak in March 2022, realtors and the board see the recent uptick in activity as a sign that the market is starting to tighten. Nasma Ali, the broker and founder of the One Group, part of Real Brokerage, noted that “for the month of March, we noticed more activity for listings, and with our buyers, we started to notice that our buyers are competing more and more with other buyers.”

However, potential buyers are being cautious and conservative in their bidding, with many choosing to bid below the asking price. This approach has left prices still far from their 2022 peak. For example, detached homes had an average price of $1,468,651, down 13.5 percent from a year ago, while semi-detached properties dropped more than 17 percent to $1,087,924. Townhouses cost an average of $935,626—a 14 percent decrease—while condos and apartments fell 13 percent to $703,566. TRREB’s March report also showed that the composite benchmark price was $1,118,500, a 16.2 percent drop on a year-over-year basis but up month-over-month on both an actual and seasonally adjusted basis. However, sales were still down almost 37 percent from March 2020.