TORONTO – Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area fell last month, along with new listings and selling prices, as the city’s real estate board believes potential buyers are waiting for the market to bottom out before making a move.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said 3,868 homes changed hands in February, down 6.3 per cent from the same month last year, as sales also declined one per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis from January.
The average selling price was down 7.1 per cent from February 2025 to $1,008,968, and the composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 7.9 per cent year-over-year. Both metrics also decreased on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis.
“Many would-be homebuyers are waiting for selling prices to level off before moving into the market,” TRREB president Daniel Steinfeld said in a news release.
There were 10,705 new listings on the market in February, down 17.7 per cent from last year. Inventory decreased 2.4 per cent as there were 19,414 total active listings in the GTA.
Steinfeld said that if new listings continue to trend lower through the spring, competition between homebuyers will increase, which could in turn lead to higher home prices and an upswing in sales.
The board’s chief information officer, Jason Mercer, added that in addition to lower prices, buyers are also holding out hope for positive news on the international trade front.
“Once we see both, there could be substantial momentum driving home sales in the second half of this year and into 2027,” he said, noting significant pent-up demand in the market.
Mercer estimated that more than 100,000 buyers are holding off on making a home purchase.
Jessica Hammell of Real Broker Ontario agreed competition could return “more feverishly” heading into spring amid constrained supply. She said it feels like the GTA market has been tightening despite less activity.
“I think that people aren’t testing the market. Anybody who’s listing their home is listing it for a purpose,” Hammell said.
“Properties that are well priced in good areas, and the properties that are in good condition are still attracting multiple offers, and in my experience, even pre-emptive offers in this climate.”
In the City of Toronto, there were 1,491 sales last month, a 5.3 per cent decrease from February 2025. Throughout the rest of the GTA, home sales were down 6.9 per cent to 2,377.
All property types saw fewer sales in February compared with a year ago across the GTA as a whole.
The largest drop was in the condo market, which saw 12 per cent less activity, while there were also 9.2 per cent fewer semi-detached sales. The detached home market was down 3.9 per cent and townhouses saw 2.4 per cent fewer sales.
Buyers who have decided to get off the sidelines are benefiting from a “slightly slower pace” than what could be in store for those choosing to wait for even lower prices, Hammell said.
“There definitely is a herd mentality in Toronto real estate and I think the savvy buyers are getting ahead of that a bit,” she said.
“Maybe it’s more the speculators that are looking for the bottom, so to speak, but unfortunately we never know what that is until it’s passed.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.
