It’s taking longer to sell homes in the GTA. According to new research by digital real estate platform Wahi, in about 86% of GTA neighbourhoods, the time it takes to sell a home has increased compared to the same time last year. The study revealed how the speed of home sales can also vary drastically depending on what part of the region one is in — neighbourhoods with the lowest and highest average days on the market were separated by a difference of eight weeks!
Looking at the GTA as a whole, homes stayed listed for an average of 28 days in Q3, up nine days from the same time last year, but in some neighbourhoods, the average number of days on the market was much lower.
“People talk about there being a Toronto housing market, but real estate is also influenced by factors on a much more local level,” Wahi CEO Benjky Katchen said in a statement. “The type of property, how it’s priced, the neighbourhood it’s located in, and more all have an impact on how quickly it sells.”
For their study, the platform examined the average time that homes were listed on the market before selling or being delisted in approximately 400 neighbourhoods throughout the GTA during the third quarter of this year. Of the 340 neighbourhoods that had at least five home sales in the third quarter of 2024, just 39 homes remained listed on the market for less time on average this year compared to last year.
In nine neighbourhoods, homes were sold in less than two weeks on average, with homes tending to sell faster in low-rise neighbourhoods in the City of Toronto.
Raymerville led, with homes in the centrally located Markham neighbourhood remaining on the market for an average of 10 days (three days less than the same time last year), making it the fastest-selling neighbourhood of Q3. This was followed by Allenby in Old Toronto, with homes selling in 11 days on average (taking 4 days longer to sell compared to last year). In Broadview North (East York) and Fallingbrook (Scarborough), it also took 11 days on average to sell a home. Broadview had no change in the number of days on the market compared to last year, but in Fallingbrook, homes took 2 days longer to sell. In Sunnylea and Thistletown (both in Etobicoke), it took an average of 12 days to sell a home (7 days and 2 days less than the same time last year, respectively).
It took an average of 13 days to sell homes in Blue Grass Creek in Whitby (1 day longer compared to last year), Milliken Mills West in Markham (2 days less compared to last year), and Parkview-Topham Park in East York (9 days less compared to last year).
While most of the fastest-selling neighbourhoods were in the City of Toronto, they were located outside the core in lower-density communities where single-family homes tend to be concentrated.
All but two (Thistletown in Etobicoke and Blue Grass Creek in Whitby) had median sale prices above $1 million, making them generally more expensive than the slowest-selling neighbourhoods. According to Wahi, this price trend likely reflects the softness in the GTA condo market since neighbourhoods with lower median prices are more likely to have a higher share of condos, which in turn are taking longer to sell in general and driving up the average days on the market overall.
In terms of the slowest-selling GTA neighbourhoods — four of the seven listed were found within Burlington. The top slowest-selling neighbourhood was Freeman (Burlington), where it took 63 days on average to sell a home — this is 41 days longer than last year, and six times as long to sell on average compared to Raymerville, Markham.
Again, many of the slowest-selling neighbourhoods have seen a higher level of condo development, but there were some exceptions. Tandaga (Burlington) is a leafy low-rise neighbourhood filled with detached homes, and it ranked fourth on the slow-selling list, taking 58 days on average to sell a home (36 days longer compared to the same time last year).
Other slow-selling neighbourhoods included the Oakville Business Corridor (Oakville), where it took 63 days on average to sell a home; the Burlington Waterfront (Burlington), where it took 62 days on average to sell a home; Bowes (Milton), where it took 60 days on average to sell a home; Westgate (Brampton), where it also took 60 days on average to sell a home; and LaSalle (Burlington), where it took 57 days on average to sell a home.
“Homes that are competitively priced are still attracting attention, but some sellers haven’t been willing to adjust their expectations, “ Katchen added. “Depending on their motivations for listing, some sellers are willing to wait out the current market or delay listing until spring in hopes of getting the price they want later.”
