Toronto house sales – and prices – continue to climb despite the best efforts by Ottawa to cool a market that shows no signs of giving buyers a breather.

Sales across the GTA were up 30 per cent in September, year over year, and prices were up 6.5 per cent over September 2012, according to figures released Thursday by the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The average transaction price for houses and condos combined last month was $533,797.

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So far, three-quarters of the way through 2013 — and what was looking, a year ago, like the start of a significant slump in the resale housing market in the wake of tighter mortgage lending rules imposed by Ottawa — some 68,907 houses and condos have changed hands across the GTA.

That’s down by just one per cent over the pace of sales recorded by TREB during the same nine-month period of 2012.

The average sale price during that same nine months of 2013 has been $520,118, up more than four per cent from the first three quarters of 2012.

Condos continued a surprising surge, which started this past summer, with sales up 28.8 per cent year over year — up 31.5 per cent in the City of Toronto and 22.3 per cent in the 905 regions.

Average sale prices, however, were down 3.7 per cent in the city but up 2.9 per cent in the suburbs. That resulted in an almost 2 per cent decline in condo prices overall across the GTA from September of 2012 to the same month this year.

“The price growth story in September continued to be about strong demand for low-rise home types, coupled with short supply of listings,” says Jason Mercer, TREB’s senior manager of market analysis.

“Even with slower price growth and month-to-month volatility in the condo apartment market, overall annual price growth has been well above the rate of inflation this year.

“This scenario will continue to play through the remainder of 2013.”

Much of the rush in the market the last few months has been blamed on an unexpected increase in fixed-rate interest rates that started in late spring and has seen buyers trying to purchase before their 90- and 120-day rate commitments expire and they are forced into more costly mortgages.

There has also been some pent-up demand after the cold, wet spring put a damper on what’s usually the peak season for sales. Many realtors had expected sales to be unusually high, as a result, well into fall — and the weather has been co-operating so far.

Detached sales were up almost 34 per cent year over year across the GTA, and prices up 7.9 per cent, bringing the average sale price of a detached home in the 416 region to $856,169 and $608,866 in the 905 regions, says TREB.

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Semi-detached sales were up more than 20 per cent, with average prices hitting $616,049 in the city and $405,920 in the suburbs.

Townhouse sales climbed by almost 31 per cent. The average 416 townhouse sold for $455,518 in September and $388,727 in the suburbs, up 9.7 per cent overall from September of 2012.

Condo prices slumped 3.7 per cent in the 416 region to an average of $363,149 while the average price of a condo that sold in the 905 regions in September was $290,239, up 2.9 per cent.