Richmond Hill house prices soar 30% to $1.138 million, report says

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 12, 2017
Lisa Queen

Richmond Hill and Vaughan are at the forefront of soaring house prices in the Greater Toronto Area, with little relief in sight, according to a report from Royal LePage.

The price of a home in the GTA in the fourth quarter of 2016 rose 16.1 per cent over the same period of 2015, with Toronto’s growth lagging behind regions outside the city, the report said.

Richmond Hill led the charge, with house prices skyrocketing 30.1 per cent to an average price of $1.138 million.

Oshawa and Whitby were next, with prices climbing 26.9 and 21.4 per cent respectively, followed by Vaughan, which saw prices jump 19.9 per cent to $927,371.

Not surprisingly, the GTA and the Greater Vancouver Area led the charge of surging house prices across Canada, which increased nationally 13 per cent to $558,153 in the last quarter of 2016 compared to the same time frame in 2015, the report said.

“However, these two regions, often grouped together as Canada’s booming real estate markets, are on divergent paths,” Royal LePage president Phil Soper said in a press release.

“Unlike Vancouver where a price correction is underway, there is no relief in sight for the GTA — forward momentum and supporting fundamentals in the region are that strong. And it is worth noting, Toronto area home prices are much lower that those on the west coast.”

New housing policies at various levels of government are sending mixed messages and failing to address housing supply concerns, the report said.

That includes federal measures to tighten mortgage qualifications, Vancouver’s introduction of a 15 per cent foreign buyers’ tax and Ontario’s doubling of the land-transfer tax rebate for first-time buyers combined with a tax increase on homes over $2 million.

“While efforts to address deteriorating affordability in Ontario and B.C.’s largest metropolitan areas are well-intentioned, too many new taxes and regulations, by too many levels of government, introduced within such a short timeline and with perceivably little research and consultation, have caused confusion and triggered drops in consumer confidence, risking the long-term health of Canada’s housing market,” Soper said, adding failure to address housing shortages have put immense upward pressure on prices.