Home prices in the Toronto region continued their descent in December – however prices on everything from tiny condos to detached homes with backyards were still higher on average last year than they were in red-hot 2016, says the Toronto Real Estate Board.The average price for all housing types the last month of 2017 was $735,021, up from $730,125, or 0.7 per cent, from a year earlier, according to data released Thursday by the Toronto Real Estate Board. But that December price was down 3.5 per cent from the November’s average price.The average selling price for all of 2017 was $822,681, up 12.7 per cent from 2016. Read more: What are Canadian new-home buyers looking for? The answer is unsexyCMHC data shows foreign buyers account for small portion of Toronto homeownersCREA slashes its 2018 home-sales forecast due to tighter mortgage regulationsMeanwhile, active listings in Toronto were up 172 per cent from a year earlier, suggesting sellers were trying to unload their property before new stress test mortgage lending rules went into effect on Jan. 1.Ottawa and Queen’s Park have tried to curb demand that had driven prices to record highs with tougher mortgage guidelines and regulations including a foreign home buyer tax introduced last April. That’s coincided with an increase in supply of new listings in the latter half of the year, resulting in slower price growth, the real estate board said.Sales fell overall last year in the Greater Toronto Area, down 18.3 per cent compared with a record pace set in 2016.“Certainly buyers moved to the sidelines to see how things would shake out,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis.In fact, December marked the seventh consecutive month of declines on the benchmark price index, which is down 8.9 per cent since May — the largest seven-month decline in the history of data going back to 2000, the board says. However sales in the Toronto area showed some signs of rec ...
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