Million dollar market: average price of detached home in Toronto suburbs now more than $1M

Growing demand for a detached home in the Greater Toronto Area continues to push prices to record highs, and there is diminishing relief in the suburbs.

• GTA house price 'spillover'

From Halton Hills, to Georgina, to Clarington, the average price of a detached home in the 905region is now $1,106,201, according to data released by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) on Friday.

It marks a 35.4 per cent increase compared with the average price in February 2016.

In Toronto, the average price of a detached home now sits at $1,573,622, a 29.8 per cent jump from last year, according to TREB.

Across the region, the average price in all housing categories rose to $875,983. A year ago that number was $685,738.

• There were 82 offers on this Brampton home

TREBcontinues to point at low supply as a key factor driving Toronto's red-hot housing market.

"The listing supply crunch we are experiencing in the GTA has undoubtedly led to the double-digit home price increases we are now experiencing on a sustained basis, both in the low-rise and high-rise market segments. Until we see a marked increase in the number of homes available for sale, expect very strong annual rates of price growth to continue," Jason Mercer, TREB's director of market analysis, said in a statement.

• Toronto councillor renews call for foreign buyers tax

• Foreign home buyers love Toronto for the schools

The report downplaysthe focus that some real-estate watchershave put on the impact of foreign buyers on the market.

"There has also been much speculation, both in the media and among government policymakers, about the amount of foreign buying activity in the GTA. A recent Ipsos survey of the TREB membership on foreign buying activity suggests that the impact of foreign buyers in the GTA marketplace has been somewhat overblown," Toronto Real Estate Board President Larry Cerqua said in a statement.

Cerqua pointedto a recent Ipsos survey, commissioned by TREB, whichfound that less than five per cent of real estate transactions last year involved foreign buyers.

Of those deals, the survey found that 80 per cent of foreign buyers in the GTA were buying a home not as an investment property but as their primary residence.