With all the negative news about decreasing values in new home sales, it is reassuring to share RealNet Canada's report on February '09 sales of new homes in the GTA.

It may come as a surprise that in February, 2009 there were 900 new home sales in the Greater Toronto Area. Out of that 900, 611 of them were low rise while 289 were high rise. With 1/3 of the sales coming from Brampton, Burlington and Milton, one may question whether the suburbs are drawing more real estate transactions due to the new Toronto Land Transfer Tax.

 This could very well explain why the average price for a Low Rise new home in Feb ‘09 was $440,258 and in February ‘08 it was $431,968. The number of low rise sales has increased by 59% since January 2009. The same trend can be noted in high rise sales. With $391,218 being the average price in ‘09 and the downtown core to make their new home purchase. Perhaps the effect of the new City of Toronto Land Transfer tax has indeed started to push people to Greater Toronto Areas.