By Fergal Smith
TORONTO, July 3 (Reuters) – Greater Toronto Area home sales rose in June for a fourth straight month and prices increased, continuing the market’s recovery following a slow start to the year, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data showed on Friday.
• Seasonally adjusted sales increased 1.4% last month from May to 5,404 units, marking the highest level of sales since November.
• The board’s home price index was up 0.3% month-over-month, after seasonal adjustment, to C$930,800 ($656,463.78), ending a string of monthly declines over the past year with the exception of a flat reading in April.
• The Greater Toronto Area includes Canada’s most populous city and four surrounding regional municipalities.
• “After a slow start in the first quarter, we saw a marked improvement in home sales in the second quarter of this year,” the board’s president, Daniel Steinfeld, said in a statement.
• “We expect accelerating transactions and more competition between buyers in the last six months of the year, helping to satisfy pent-up demand and ultimately resulting in renewed price growth,” Steinfeld said.
• On a year-over-year basis, sales rose 9.4%, while new listings declined 12.9% and the price index was down 5.4%.
($1 = 1.4179 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by David Gregorio)
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