Catherine Farley

 

A warm front continues to blow across the GTA housing market, taking much of the chill out of recessionary real estate shivers of the past year.

November resale values gained an average of 13 per cent compared with a year ago, more than compensating for the 3.9 per cent median price drop in the fall of 2008, after the U.S. housing collapse shook stock markets around the world.

That 3.9 per cent is significant in a market accustomed to annual gains of 5 to 8 per cent over the past decade.

But that's only part of the story. A closer look at the numbers shows prices in many neighbourhoods – including Toronto's upscale Bridle Path, Rosedale and Forest Hill – are lagging their lofty 2007 heights, not to mention the gains experienced by their lower-scale neighbours.

The biggest two-year losses were in King and Uxbridge, where Nov. 2009 median home prices remain about 30 per cent below Nov. 2007, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board monthly reports.

In another 13 of the 86 areas tracked by the board, prices are still lower than in 2007, including places where auto-sector woes pulled prices down – Oshawa, home of General Motors of Canada, and Clarkson, adjacent to the Oakville Ford plant.

But overall, the market was up, with some areas showing extraordinary gains. North Pickering and the outlying areas north of Milton and northeast of Orangeville posted increases of more than 40 per cent, far outpacing the two-year GTA average of 8.9 per cent.

Click on the map to get the larger map, or click here

The large map shows the change in each area over two years beginning November 2007. The smaller maps show the drop of 2007-08

Thanks to the Toronto Star.

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