Toronto home sales dropped by 18.3% last year

The figures are in for home sales across Toronto last year and, while the average selling price was up, the total number of sales were well down. 

Realtors in the city reported 92,394 sales through MLS in 2017, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board – about 18.3 per cent less than the record number of homes sold in 2016.

The average cost of a home in 2017 was up 12.7 per cent over the previous year at $822,681, though much of that growth took place between January and April.

"This annual growth was driven more so by extremely tight market conditions during the first four months of the year," reads a real estate board report released Thursday. "In the latter two-thirds of 2017, fewer sales combined with increased listings resulted in slower price growth."

TREB president Tim Syrianos blamed government policy decisions, like Canada's mortgage stress-test and the province's new 15 per cent tax on foreign home buyers, for "much of the sales volatility in 2017."

"The Ontario Fair Housing Plan, which included a foreign buyer tax, had a marked psychological impact on the marketplace," he said in the report. 

"Looking forward, government policy could continue to influence consumer behaviour in 2018, as changes to federal mortgage lending guidelines come into effect."