Close your eyes and try to imagine Toronto in the 1970’s. It was a bit of a grittier place back then and the downtown core that we know today was just being built. Important Toronto real estate structures that we’ve come to associate with our great city were born in the 70’s such as the CN Tower and the Eaton Centre. There was also an increase in building downtown office towers, apartment buildings, and more.

The city saw an influx of English-speaking people and businesses from Montreal due to the rise of the Parti Quebecois. This made Toronto one of the fastest-growing cities in North America. Now that we have a sense of what the city was like back then, you may be wondering what the cost of Toronto real estate was in the 1970s compared to today. Let’s explore the comparison of the 70s vs today…and try not to go into shock.

The 1970s

In 1970, the average detached home price in Toronto was around $29,000. By the end of 1979, the average home cost a little over $70,000. Interest rates were around 9%. Note that in 1971, the average family income in Ontario was around $11,000. In 1975, the average family income in Ontario was $18,000.The strong market of the 1970s declined drastically in the 1980s when interest rates began to rise out of control.

To put these housing prices into perspective, it’s interesting to know the cost of common goods during this era. Let’s explore the average prices in 1971 and 1978 below.

1971:

• 1 dozen eggs: $0.53
• 64 fl oz of milk : $0.66
• 4.5 kg of potatoes: $0.68
• 453 g of white bread: $0.25
• 453 g of bacon: $0.80
• 453 g of steak: $1.36

1978:

• 1 dozen eggs: $0.79
• 64 fl oz of milk: $0.86
• 4.5 kg of potatoes: $1.40
• 453 g of white bread: $0.36
• 453 g of bacon: $1.79
• 453 g of steak: $1.99

Today’s Toronto Real Estate Market

Although we are in the year 2023, we have more comprehensive statistics if we look at the year 2022. Toronto real estate agents saw around 27,000 sales in 2022 compared to over 43,000 sales in 2021. In the city of Toronto, the average selling price for 2022 was $1,140,595 compared to $1,056,503 in 2021. It is noteworthy that in 2022, sales began to trend lower in the spring and summer due to aggressive interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. At the end of 2022, the prime rate in Canada was 6.45%.

Today vs 1979

Between 1979 to today, the Canadian dollar has had an average inflation rate of 3.23% per year. In 1979, the value of $100 is now equivalent to $405.79 in today’s dollars. This indicates that the prices of today are approximately 4.06 times higher than average prices in 1979. This means that $1.00 in 1979 is now equal to $4.06 in today’s dollars, $500 in 1979 is worth $2,028.95 today, $5,000 in 1975 is $20,289.49 today, $100,000 would be $405.789.72 today, and so on and so forth. So, if the average price of a home in Toronto in 1979 was $70,000, that would be equal in purchasing power to approximately $284,052.81 in today’s dollars.

While we don’t have a time machine to travel back to the simpler (and more inexpensive) times of the 1970s, it is interesting to be able to look back and compare and contrast now versus then. It really makes you think, what changes do you think we will see within the next 50 years?

SOURCES:
https://relativerealty.com/first-time-home-buying-by-decade/
https://www.blogto.com/city/2010/09/toronto_of_the_1970s/
https://www.rentalhousingbusiness.ca/toronto-through-the-60s-70s-80s/
https://trreb.ca/files/market-stats/market-watch/historic.pdf
https://trreb.ca/files/news_releases/news2022/nr_market_watch_1222.pdf