Toronto Real Estate Board figures show home sales dropped 20.3 per cent in May compared to May last year even as prices continued to climb. The board says the average selling price for all properties in May was $863,910, an increase of 14.9 per cent from the same month last year. Sales of detached homes, which had an average selling price of $1,141,041, fell by 26.3 per cent in the GTA. The drop is attributed to the Ontario government’s foreign buyer tax which is said to apply only to speculators, not immigrants. Just how that distinction is made is not very clear but there seems no doubt that the intended effect of slowing sales has kicked in. Just how much it will slow price increases however seems an unknown.
