Toronto home prices gain 7% in 2012 even as sales slip

Toronto home prices continued their steady march higher last year, with the average price of a resale home coming in at $497,298 in 2012, an almost seven per cent increase over the previous year.

The Toronto Real Estate Board said Friday that 85,731 Toronto-area homes changed hands last year. That's a four per cent decline from 89,096 in 2011.

"The number of transactions in 2012 was quite strong from a historic perspective," board president Ann Hannah said.  "We saw strong year-over-year growth in sales in the first half of the year, but this growth was more than offset by sales declines in the second half."

In July, Ottawa implemented another crackdown on the mortgage industry that made it harder to get Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) insurance, limiting mortgages to 25 years.

That put a damper on activity in Canada's largest housing market, the data showed Friday.

Sales were down in all segments of the market, from detached and semi-detached homes, to townhouses and condos. But with the exception of condos — the average price of a condo in the Greater Toronto Area dipped almost a per cent to $325,726 — prices were higher on average in 2012 than they were in 2011.

The value of condos in the downtown "416" area slipped by a bit more, down 1.8 per cent, to $342,847.