After a busier-than-usual December home buying season, purchasers across the Toronto region spent the first month of 2021 continuing their buying spree.

January home sales were up over 50 percent compared to the same month last year. Robust buyer activity and tight supply in the low-rise market sent the overall average price of a Toronto region home up 15.5 percent over January 2020. The average sale price last month was $967,885, up from $838,087 a year ago.

Many of the other trends that market observers had grown accustomed to seeing in the second half of 2020 were present in the first month of housing market data for the new year, published today by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB).

For one, sales across all low-rise property types — detached, semi-detached and townhomes — saw healthy double-digit sales growth. Detached homes in the suburban 905 area remained the single most sought-after property type. There were 2,244 suburban detached homes sold in January, out of a total of 6,928 transactions recorded across the region.

The City of Toronto’s struggling condo market continued to post price declines last month, with the average selling price falling eight percent annually to $624,886.

But, as was the case in December, condo sales surged again, providing more hope that the high volume of listings currently on the market may be steadily whittled down by bargain-hunting buyers.

Condo sales recorded the sharpest increase of any property type on an annual basis, up across the region by over 85 percent for a total of 2,471 transactions. Condo sales growth also outpaced new listings growth in the City of Toronto in January, with TRREB noting that this could signal “renewed growth in condo prices later this year” if this trend continues.