The average price of a home in the Toronto region rose to $746,546 in June, up 16.8 per cent from the same month last year, as the supply of housing continued to decline, according to monthly statistics issued by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) on Wednesday.

The board is planning to release additional research this year to contribute to the escalating discussion about housing prices in the city.

“As the federal, provincial and local levels of government discuss housing policy in the coming months, issues affecting the lack of supply in the GTA should be of paramount importance,” said TREB president Larry Cerqua.

“There is no doubt that demand is at a record level, but would-be home buyers continue to face an uphill battle against a constrained supply of listings,” he said.

While TREB recorded 7.5 per cent more sales, 12,794 in all in June, the number of new listings was down 3.8 per cent.

The real estate board has said that the low supply is, in part, a result of homeowners being reluctant to sell their properties because of the high price of finding another home. Many homeowners are renovating rather than moving.

In the city of Toronto, home prices rose to $775,400 on average in June from $682,489 the same month last year.

Across the region, detached homes rose in price about 20 per cent over last year. Semi-detached homes, which have been in particularly short supply this year, rose 16.4 per cent and townhomes increased 14.9 per cent. The average price of a condo rose 7.7 per cent in the same period.

The federal government has recently announced a provincial working group to look at policy options for cooling the climbing Toronto housing market. It has also promised to look more closely into the extent that foreign investment is fueling the high prices here and in the Greater Vancouver area.