Sales flat in March, listings fall and prices edge up
TORONTO — A flattened real estate market in the Greater Toronto Area has the region’s real estate board again calling for revisions to stricter mortgage stress tests.
“The stress test provisions and mortgage lending guidelines generally, including allowable amortization periods for insured mortgages, should be reviewed,” Garry Bhaura, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board president, said in a statement Wednesday. The board says the stress tests — brought in by the federal government to cool excess borrowing and an overheated market — continues to limit the ability of some buyers to qualify for a mortgage.
The call for changes to the policy came as March showed flat home sales of 7,187, down by one home from the same month a year earlier.“Despite sales being markedly lower than the record levels of 2016 and early 2017, the supply of listings has also receded,” said Jason Mercer, the board’s chief market analyst, in a statement.
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