Toronto home prices are down 8.8%

Toronto home prices are down 8.8% since May, but the biggest decline in 17 years lures new buyers

The Toronto Real Estate Board’s benchmark home price index fell for the sixth consecutive month, down another 0.4 per cent from October. The index has fallen 8.8 per cent since May — the largest six-month decline in the history of data back to 2000. For the first time since 2009, the average price of a home sold in Toronto — at $761,757 in November — failed to surpass levels from a year earlier.

Toronto’s housing market, dubbed one of the riskiest housing bubble cities by UBS Group AG, has slumped over the past few months amid government rules and harsher mortgage guidelines aimed at curbing demand. That’s coincided with a sharp increase in supply with new listings up 37 per cent from a year earlier. Yet, the data are now indicating the lower prices have also begun to boost demand and fuel sales.