Here’s a summary of the significant real estate milestones and 'talking points' for December 2017.

Courtesy of Thomas Cook

* 4th highest number of overall sales for the month of December (4,930) and up by a few hundred homes from October

* 2017 had 92,394 total sales… a BIG drop from 113,000 last year and drops to 5th place in sales since 2012

* The ratio of sales-to-listings dropped back to 38.1% in December – a very moderate seller’s market

* The average sale price dropped slightly to $735,021 – BUT was flat compared to 2016 – because of higher sales of lower priced condos

* The final average for the entire 2017 year ended up at $822,681 – 12.7% higher than for 2016

* Sales in the month were down 7.1% from one year ago

* The GTA real estate market overall averaged the days-on-market at 27 – still quick compared to many markets

* Again, it’s becoming clear that first-time buyer aspirations are now shifting to a condominium lifestyle – CONDO sales took a ‘highest ever’ 40.3% of the total market in December… about 2-3% more than average

* Downtown condo listing numbers were up in C01 and down in C08 from last year at this time

* The downtown condo days-on-market average was 20-21 days – slightly faster than the overall market

* The ratio of sales-to-listings for condos downtown ranged between 65.4% in C01 to 110% in C08 indicating a very strong seller’s market… well ahead of most of the GTA

* The average sale price for downtown condominium suites is still up by roughly $120,000 from 2016

* Building on this higher demand due to better affordability, condo appreciation in the two main downtown markets averaged 24% year-over-year

* Markets in York Region and some other 905 neighbourhoods have suffered the most from the market slowdown – York Region is now showing that they’re in ‘buyer market’ territory