Photo: James Bombales

In an otherwise cooling market, new GTA housing has managed to stay hot, especially when it came to condo sales. But according to new data, it may be starting to change.

According to the latest sales number from Altus Group, released today by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), new home sales dropped 65 per cent year-over-year in April.

“While home-buying intentions remain strong, a combination of challenges is keeping many interested buyers out of the new home market this spring,” writes Altus Group executive vice-president research consulting services Patricia Arsenault, in a statement.

For a closer look at what happened to the new housing market last month, BuzzBuzzNews has rounded up 7 stats to put things in perspective.

1. There were 1,727 new home sales in April — 502 detached and 1,225 condos — the lowest number of sales for April in 20 years.

2. Sales for both new single-family homes and condos were down 65 per cent year-over-year, sitting 70 per cent below the 10-year sales average for low-rise homes and 38 per cent below the 10-year average for condos.

3. “First-time buyers need to save longer to qualify for a mortgage, and potential move-up buyers are faced with a bigger gap than a year ago between the price of a newly-built home and the price they can get for their existing home,” writes Arsenault, in a statement.

4. As sales dipped, inventory rose to 14,297 units, a 14.8 per cent jump from March’s 12,457 units.

5. BILD is quick to note that it is still about five months’ worth of inventory, while a healthy new home market would have nine to 12 months of inventory.

6. The benchmark price for a new single-family home fell five per cent year-over-year to $1,151,815, while the price for a new condo dropped a whole 29.8 per cent year-over-year to $739,965.

7. “It is obvious that government action is having an impact on demand in the new home market,” writes BILD president and CEO David Wilkes, in a statement. “We have 115,000 new residents coming to the GTA every year and we need to be building 55,000 new homes annually to meet their housing needs. Government policy needs to recognize the need to increase housing supply as part of a long-term solution for our region.”