Toronto’s hot housing market was not as sizzling last year than the year before.

A release from the Toronto Real Estate Board says there were 77,426 residential transactions recorded in 2018, down 16.1 percent from 96,263 sales in 2017.

The board says the total number of new listings was also lower, pulling back 12.7 per cent to 155,823 in 2018.

Meantime, the average selling price for all property types in the Greater Toronto Area fell by 4.3 per cent to $787,300.

Experts say home buyers and sellers grappled in 2018 with a new reality of higher interest rates and stricter mortgage rules.