WATERLOO REGION - The sizzling local real estate market shows no sign of cooling off just yet.

House sales keep surging, with 766 residential sales recorded in April through the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors' multiple listing system in Kitchener and Waterloo, and Woolwich, Wellesley and Wilmot townships. That's up from 729 sales in March, and an increase of more than 14 per cent from April, 2016.

The average sale price for all properties hit $512,656, a nearly 40 per cent year-over-year jump over the average price of $367,032 last April. The median price last month was $475,000.

"I'm blown away to see that increase year-over-year," association president James Craig said Wednesday. "It's definitely surprising for us. We expected to see some increases but certainly not to these levels."

The average price for a detached home is nearing the $600,000 mark; in April, detached homes sold for an average of $594,453, an increase of 40.1 per cent year-over-year, while semi-detached homes averaged $415,709, up nearly 48 per cent over last year.

Townhomes sold for an average of $377,531 last month, up about 39 per cent over last April, while apartment-style condos averaged $267,455, up about 18 per cent.

In Cambridge, the average price last month for a single family detached home was $539,135, an increase of nearly 32 per cent over last April. The Cambridge Association of Realtors reported 234 single family residential sales last month, up nearly 16 per cent over April 2016.

"Not surprisingly, the current imbalance of supply and demand led to another very large year-over-year increase in the average sale price in the region," Cambridge association president Jim Robinson said in a news release.

"The demand side of things is still what's pushing things," Craig said. "The demand that's coming from Toronto is really what's driving our inventory lower and our prices higher."

There are some signs of hope for beleaguered would-be buyers, though. The Kitchener-Waterloo association reported that 985 residential properties were listed last month, representing a 17.8 per cent increase over April 2016. It's also the first time in two years that the number of new listings coming onto the market in a single month has approached the 1,000 mark.

In March, 844 new listings were processed by the association.

It's an encouraging sign, Craig said. But those listings aren't lasting long. Homes are being snapped up in 10 days, on average, down from 14 days in March and 33 days a year ago.

That's leaving inventory levels quite low. At the end of April, there were just 652 residential listings on the market in the association's coverage area - about half the 1,274 available listings at the end of April last year.

"To see we're still in record low inventory numbers, that speaks to the demand side," Craig said.

Last month, the Ontario government introduced a series of measures aimed at cooling the market and improving affordability, ranging from expanded rent control to a 15 per cent non-resident speculation tax on buyers in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (including Waterloo Region) who are not citizens, permanent residents or Canadian corporations.

"It is a bit of a wait-and-see to see whether (these measures) will change things in the GTA and keep buyers there," Craig said.

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The association doesn't support expanded rent controls, concerned that could discourage builders from building new rental units and put more pressure on the housing market. But Craig said he's pleased the government will be creating a Home Ownership Task Force to provide ideas about getting more supply to market.

And Craig said it's equally important to ensure that the approvals processes in place to get land ready for construction are streamlined. "We need to make sure we're increasing supply everywhere, not just in the GTA."