Confidence in Local Real Estate Markets Growing Among GTA Residents, New Research Shows

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - August 11, 2015) - Confidence in local real estate markets has grown considerably over the last year among GTA residents, shows new research from the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA). According to the Ontario Home Ownership Index, 66% of GTA residents describe the current residential real estate market in their city or town as 'favourable', up five percentage points from last year.

"The Index measures consumer confidence in the economy and real estate markets both provincially and locally," says Patricia Verge, president of OREA. "What stood out in this wave of research was the significant increase in positive sentiment among GTA residents."

Overall, confidence in local real estate markets is higher among 905 residents, but 416 residents showed greater improvements in sentiment. For example, seven out of ten 905 residents say the real estate market in their city/town is favourable (up four percentage points from last year); six out of ten Toronto residents (61%) said the same, a seven percentage point increase from last year.

"As far as real estate markets go, the gap in sentiment appears to be closing between residents in the 416 and 905," says Verge. "We know that each of these areas is unique, but it is encouraging to see that residents in both are growing more positive about their local real estate markets."

When asked to compare their city/town's real estate market to last year, more GTA-ers said it was 'stronger':

• GTA 416 - 47% of residents said the residential real estate market in their city/town was stronger compared to one year ago; up from 38% who said so last year
• GTA 905 - 51% said the real estate market in their city/town was stronger than last year; up from 47% last year

When asked about their future outlook, there was an even greater increase in sentiment:

• GTA 416 - 40% of residents described the residential real estate market in their city/town as 'stronger' in the next year; up ten percentage points, or 30%, from last year
• GTA 905 - 52% said the real estate market in their city/town will be stronger in the next year; up seven percentage points, or 45%, from last year

For more results from the Ontario Home Ownership Index, visit www.orea.com.

Methodology

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between May 20^th and 24^th, 2015, on behalf of the Ontario Real Estate Association. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Ontarians from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/-3.5 percentage points of what the results would be had all adults in Ontario been surveyed.

About The Ontario Home Ownership Index

The Ontario Home Ownership Index is designed to reflect Ontarians' overall views of the residential real estate market in Ontario, and incorporates measures such as Ontarians' perceptions of whether the market in their neighbourhood, city, and Ontario, respectively, have improved or worsened in the last year and looking ahead into the future, whether home ownership is important to them and whether it is a good investment in the long-term. The first wave of the index, conducted in the fall 2013, was set to a baseline of 100 points.

About the Ontario Real Estate Association

The Ontario Real Estate Association represents 60,000 brokers and salespeople who are members of the 40 real estate boards throughout the province. OREA serves its REALTOR® members through a wide variety of professional publications, educational programs, advocacy, and other services. www.OREA.com.