

Aleksandra Sagan, The Canadian Press





Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area in April jumped nearly 17 per cent, but prices for detached homes continued to slip compared with a year ago.

Home sales rose 16.8 per cent from 7,744 in April 2018 to 9,042 in the same month this year, according to data the Toronto Real Estate Board released Monday.

"Growth in new listings is not keeping pace with sales," Garry Bhaura, the board's president, said in a statement.

New listings rose eight per cent.

The board said the annual growth rate for new listings being much lower than that for reported sales suggest market conditions continue to tighten and points to an acceleration in price growth.

However, the price for detached homes in the GTA still fell last month, dropping 1.3 per cent to $1,018,147 compared with the same month the previous year. In the 416 area code, the average price remained the same at $1,355,764, while it fell 1.7 per cent in the 905 area code to $914,249.

Detached houses have been hardest hit by measures like the government mortgage stress test, the board said.

Semi-detached house prices in the GTA grew two per cent to $808,796, while townhomes jumped 1.6 per cent to $655,994. Condominium prices saw the biggest increase at 5.1 per cent to $588,168.

The average selling price for all property types rose 1.9 per cent to $820,148, which the board said is "the highest rate of growth in more than a year."