Greater Toronto Area home sales fell 8.9 per cent in December 2025 to 3,697, and the average selling price dropped 5.1 per cent to $1,006,735, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said Jan. 7, closing a weaker year that the board says could give way to recovery in 2026.
December closed a soft year
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) says 3,697 homes changed hands across the Greater Toronto Area in December, down 8.9 per cent from December 2024. On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales were also down 0.4 per cent from November, according to Canadian Press reporting of the release.
Prices moved in the same direction. The average selling price fell 5.1 per cent from a year earlier to $1,006,735. The MLS Home Price Index composite benchmark, which is intended to represent a typical home in the region, fell 6.3 per cent year over year.
Supply did not retreat with demand. New listings entered into the MLS system in December totalled 5,299, up 1.8 per cent from a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, TRREB says new listings rose from November while the composite benchmark trended slightly lower and the average selling price edged higher than the previous month.
The full-year picture
December was not an exception. It capped a year in which economic uncertainty weighed on confidence from January onward, and many buyers stayed on the sidelines.
For the full calendar year, GTA realtors reported 62,433 home sales through TRREB’s MLS system, down 11.2 per cent from 2024. New listings for the year reached 186,753, up 10.1 per cent year over year. The annual average selling price was $1,067,968, down 4.7 per cent from $1,120,241 in 2024.
That gap between the annual and December figures matters for anyone reading only the headline month. December’s average of $1,006,735 was more than $61,000 below the average for 2025 as a whole, which suggests the market did not simply stay flat at a lower level through the year — it softened further as the year ended.
TRREB says the combination of elevated inventory and lower prices was, for those who did buy, an advantage. With more homes to choose from, buyers had greater opportunity to negotiate selling prices downward than in tighter years.
Why the board sees a possible recovery
The board’s case for 2026 rests on affordability. Both selling prices and mortgage rates trended lower through 2025, reducing the cost of carrying a home compared with a year earlier, even if prices remain above $1 million on average in the GTA.
“The GTA housing market became more affordable in 2025 as selling prices and mortgage rates trended lower. Improved affordability has set the market up for recovery,” TRREB president Daniel Steinfeld said in the board’s Jan. 7 release. “Once households are convinced that the economy and labour market are on a solid footing, sales will increase as pent-up demand is satisfied.”
That is a conditional forecast, not a promise of a rebound. Steinfeld’s own condition is confidence: households need to believe the economy and the labour market are stable before the demand held back through 2025 returns. Until that shift happens, the December pattern — fewer sales, more listings and lower negotiated prices — is the pattern the region carries into the new year.
