December home sales figures to wrap up red-hot year for Toronto market

The Toronto Real Estate Board will release home sales figures for the month of December today, wrapping up a year characterized by strong sales growth and soaring prices in the country's largest real estate market.

• Toronto catching up to Vancouver for most unaffordable real estate market, says RBC
• Vancouver real estate sales fall but prices only inch downwards

Limited inventory and high demand from buyers, fuelled partly by low interest rates, have made for a red-hot housing market in Toronto over the past year.

In October, the federal government made a number of changes aimed at stabilizing the country's real estate markets, including requiring stress tests for all insured mortgages.

The stress test change was intended to ensure that Canadians don't take on larger mortgages than they can handle, particularly in markets such as Toronto and Vancouver where affordability is stretched.

Yesterday, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported that the number of homes sold in Greater Vancouver dropped more than 22 per cent in December compared to the previous month. 

But the actual prices have yet to drop. The composite benchmark price for all residential properties in Metro Vancouver, as measured by the Multiple Listing Service home price index, sat at $897,600 last month — up 17.8 per cent compared to December 2015.