Even real estate agents seem to be losing their high hopes for a quick recovery of Toronto's painfully slow real estate market, which has been in a steep downswing for months, as far as sales are concerned.

The stats from August, released by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) on Thursday, show that there are still far fewer homes changing hands than the city is used to, along with some other troubling trends.

Toronto is overrun with homes for sale that no one is buying because prices are still sky-high https://t.co/roZyJt8w1p

— blogTO (@blogTO) July 4, 2024

There were 4,975 total homes sales across the GTA over the course of the month, which is 5.3 per cent fewer than in August 2023, with buyers continuing to hesitate due to the severe lack of affordability that obstinately high prices and still-too-high interest rates pose (and, as they finally realize that the investment may not be worth it).

With the typical house or condo in the region now an absurd $1,074,425 — necessitating an income of at least $208,950 — the days of bidding wars and quick sales feel like a distant past. And though some areas and housing segments are seeing more signs of life now than they were earlier in the year, other figures paint a dismal picture for stakeholders.

Here's one more key sign that Toronto's real estate market is in distress right now https://t.co/HdpvxA5vKU

— blogTO (@blogTO) July 11, 2024

First is the number of active listings, which, as of August, sits at 22,653, a bewildering 46.2 per cent more than at the same time last year. This is with a year-over-year increase of only 1.5 per cent in new listings for the month.

Then there is the amount of time that properties are sitting on the market — 28 days, on average, per listing, and 44 days per home (which accounts for re-listings). These numbers represent increases of a whopping 40 per cent and 57.1 per cent, respectively, from last August.

Even with sales activity now only down single-digit percentages from the same time last year (after double-digit declines earlier in the year), these data points signify a lot about the state of the market for sellers and developers — the latter of which are now cancelling new projects, even as the government pushes for more housing ASAP.

maybe it’s because 500 sq. ft. 2-bedroom condos aren’t actually worth $800k

— matthewb.eth (@0xmatthewb) September 5, 2024

The main culprit is the condo market, which experts have said is faltering due to the region's surplus of tiny, unlivable, overpriced, commodified units that were "built for speculators who had no intention of living in them," as they once offered a guaranteed profit, but now, do not.