Canada's largest real estate board says home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were down 39.5 per cent year-over-year in March.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says GTA realtors reported 7,228 residential transactions during the month compared to a record 11,954 sales in March 2017.

New listings totalled 14,866, representing a 12.4 per cent drop from March 2017.

The average price of a home in the GTA was $784,558 last month — down from an average of $915,126 in the same month last year.

In Toronto alone, the board says the average home sold for $817,642 compared to $897,856 a year ago.

TREB president Tim Syrianos says higher borrowing costs and other factors have prompted some buyers to put purchasing on hold but predicts home sales will be up relative to 2017 in the second half of this year.

"Right now, when we are comparing home prices, we are comparing two starkly different periods of time," says Jason Mercer, TREB's director of market analysis.

He says there was less than a month of inventory last year versus two and three months this year.

"It makes sense that we haven't seen prices climb back to last year's peak. However, in the second half of the year, expect to see the annual rate of price growth improve compared to Q1, as sales increase relative to the below-average level of listings," said Mercer.