It may be a new year but it’s the same old story for Toronto’s real estate market. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) has released the numbers for January, and with 4,581 sales reported, there was a 15.4% increase compared to the same time last year.

Market conditions continued to tighten, with sales significantly outpacing the supply of new and active listings. New listings were down 17.1%, while active listings fell a whopping 35% from a year ago. There is currently a 1.7 month supply of inventory in the GTA, extending the seller’s market, limiting consumer choice, and putting upward pressure on prices.

The average price of all sales in January was $839,363, up 12.3% year-over-year, while the MLS Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark, which measures real inflation, was up 8.7%. This was the highest rate of annual growth since October 2017.

Prices were up for all major categories, led by condo apartments at +15.1% (+15% in the 416). This was followed by detached homes at +10.5% (+16.7% in the 416), townhouses at +8% (-1.9% in the 416), and semis at +6.5% (+1.1% in the 416). Worth noting is the resurgence of single detached home prices, particularly in the 416, which had been flat throughout much of 2019. As of January, the average detached home in the 416 was priced at $1,369,848.

As inflation in the high-rise market continues to erode the condo apartment’s price advantage, ground level options are attracting increased attention from buyers. Sales of detached homes jumped 23.3% (+20.8% in the 416), followed by townhomes at +15.9% (+25.5% in the 416) and semi-detached homes at 5.1% (0% in the 416). Condos sales were up 8.3% (9.7% in the 416).