It’s been a quiet summer so far for the Greater Toronto Area housing market.

The latest data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) on Thursday showed home sales sank 47.4 per cent year-over-year in July. Sales activity was down 24.1 per cent on a monthly basis.

Seasonally adjusted, TRREB reported sales were down 0.3 per cent from June to July.

With some homebuyers sitting on the sidelines, it appears some would-be sellers are choosing to hold off listing their properties.

New listings fell 4.1 per cent in July from the year before. TRREB said it expects new listings to continue to follow sales trends into next year.

Amid less competition among buyers, the average selling price of a property extended a slide from the February peak, reaching $1,074,754 last month, led by the single-family home segment.

“With significant increases to lending rates in a short period, there has been a shift in consumer sentiment, not market fundamentals,” said Kevin Crigger, president of TRREB, in a release.

He called on the federal government to implement measures to improve affordability for buyers in the face of rising borrowing costs and high inflation.

He also slammed recent increases to municipal development charges.

“City of Toronto Council should reflect on its recently approved 46 per cent increase to development charges, bringing the average cost of all government charges and fees to an astounding $350,000+ for every new detached house and over $180,000 for a new condominium,” Crigger said.

“We do commend the city for providing an exemption from development charges for up to three additional units on single lots which will encourage more missing middle multiplex housing, but this exemption alone is not enough.”