Housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver continued to skyrocket in May, with the average price of detached homes hitting $1.15 million in Toronto and $1.4 million in Vancouver last month.
In , released Wednesday, the Toronto Real Estate Board says the average Greater Toronto home was priced at $649,599 this May, 11 per cent higher than this time last year.
For detached houses in the "416," the average price broke the $1.1-million dollar mark, hitting $1,115,120, the report said. That鈥檚 up 18.2 per cent since last year.
Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were also up by 6.3 per cent, with 11,706 sales reported in May 2015, in comparison to 11,013 in 2014.
According to the report, "record May transactions, coupled with a dip in the number of homes available for sale, resulted in strong price growth."
The report did note a drop in available low-rise homes in the City of Toronto, which, it said, caused a decline in detached home sales in the city. However, that dip did not affect the record sales, it said.
"It is clear to me that ownership housing remains top of mind as a quality long-term investment for GTA households. This is why, despite a shortage of listings in some market segments, we experienced a record number of sales," the board鈥檚 president, Paul Etherington, said in the report.
According to the report, the numbers reflect the fact that the proportion of high-end home sales has been greater this year, compared to last.
This means the average selling price for all home types combined last month was up 11 per cent. Meanwhile, the MLS Home Price Index Composite Benchmark was up by 8.9 per cent year over year.
"Tight market conditions, especially for singles, semis and town homes in the GTA, have resulted in strong price growth regardless of the price metric being considered," Jason Mercer, the board鈥檚 director of market analysis said in the report.
Mercer also said that, thanks to 鈥減ent up demand,鈥� prices aren鈥檛 likely to slow anytime soon.
"Expect similar rates of price growth as we move through the remainder of 2015," he said.
Housing also hot in Vancouver
Toronto isn鈥檛 the only Canadian city with soaring housing prices.
According to the , the average sale price for a detached home in Greater Vancouver hit $1.42 million in May, up 16.3 per cent from last year.
May also marked the third consecutive month that home sales in Metro Vancouver surpassed 4,000.
