While the price of new construction condos in the Toronto region continues to rise — 21.8 per cent year over year in August to an average of $784,512 — the cost of a new build single-family home fell 12.4 per cent to $1.13 million in the same period.

The number of single-family home sales — a category that includes detached, semi-detached and townhouses — rose 50 per cent last month, while condo sales took a slight dip by 1 per cent, according to the Building and Land Development association (BILD).

But sales of all home types were down from the 10-year average — 80 per cent on the single family side of the industry and 28 per cent for condos and stacked townhouses.

Re-sale homes appear to be recovering from the market chill that followed the introduction of the Ontario Fair Housing policy in April 2017, new mortgage restrictions and higher lending rates. But new home consumers are still feeling cautious, said David Wilkes, CEO of BILD.

“The economy is in this state of uncertainty, there’s a lot of things that are causing people to take a pause,” he said, citing the lingering effects of the new housing policies and Canadian trade negotiations with the U.S.

“We are in this period of adjustment. We’re expecting to see the market rebound. What we’ve seen on the re-sale side are early indications that people are regaining their confidence to make the big purchases such as a home,” said Wilkes.

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Home builders remain bullish on the industry’s long-term prospects, he said.

“There is population growth in the GTA. There is demand that we are anticipating. There are people that we know are looking to either move up or move out,” said Wilkes.

There were 803 condos and 171 single-family homes sold in the Toronto area last month. Condos have dominated new home sales this year, accounting for 11,494 sales, compared to 2,570 single family homes. Sales are down 55 per cent in the condo market year over year and single-family home sales have dropped 59 per cent in the same period.

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BILD continues to push governments to boost the housing supply. It said only two developments went on the market in August, reducing the inventory of new construction homes available by about 1,200 units since July.

Of the 13,619 new construction homes on the market in August, 8,842 were condos and 4,777 were single-family homes.