Greater Toronto home sales dip in December to cap ‘transitionary’ 2024: board

Greater Toronto home sales fell slightly last month to cap a year that saw buyers take advantage of “substantial negotiating power” on price.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says 3,359 homes were sold in December throughout the Greater Toronto Area, down 1.8 per cent compared with 3,419 in the same month the previous year.

The average selling price declined 1.6 per cent compared with a year earlier to $1,067,186, as the composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was up by less than one per cent year-over-year.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The board says 2024 was a “transitionary” year for the region’s housing market as sales rose 2.6 per cent to 67,610 — outpaced by a 16.4 per cent increase in new listings, at 166,121.

It says this gave buyers “considerable choice” in the marketplace and effectively prevented widespread price growth. The average selling price for all home types combined was $1,117,600 in 2024, a decline of less than one per cent compared with 2023.

TRREB president Elechia Barry-Sproule says high interest rates presented “significant affordability hurdles and kept home sales well below the norm” in 2024, but the market benefitted from the Bank of Canada’s rate cuts in the second half of the year.