Dec 5 (Reuters) - Toronto home sales were down in November from a year earlier, but rose slightly from October bucking the usual seasonal trend, as buyers rushed to get in before tighter mortgage rules come into effect next year, data showed on Tuesday.
Sales volumes rose 3.6 percent in November from October, but slipped 13.3 percent from a year earlier, the eighth straight month of declining sales after a years-long boom, a report from the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) showed.
The autumn market in the Toronto area has been stronger than usual this year, as worries over measures to cool demand imposed by the province of Ontario in the spring have started to wane, said TREB President Tim Syrianos in the report.
"On top of this, it is also possible that the upcoming changes to mortgage lending guidelines, which come into effect in January, have prompted some households to speed up their home buying decision," he said.
Canada's tougher new rules on mortgage lending that require stress tests on uninsured mortgages and an end to practices designed to circumvent lending limits will take effect on Jan. 1. average selling price for all homes types was down 2 percent at C$761,757 compared to C$777,091 in November of last year, which TREB said reflected a drop in detached home sales volumes and prices. Condo prices, meanwhile, rose 16.4 percent.
Prices were also down 17 percent from the April peak. The Ontario government introduced a foreign buyers tax and other measures in late April, in a bid to cool real estate demand in Toronto and the surrounding areas. listings rose 37.2 percent from a year earlier, when supply was below historic averages, while active listings more than doubled to 18,197 from 8,639 as properties sat on the market longer.