In the search for a home to call their own, Toronto-area buyers are looking up — and many are liking what they see.

The GTA Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) announced in a press release this week that a whopping 2,003 of all 2,345 new home sales in May were for condominium apartments. That's 85 per cent!

This doesn't mean that condo sales are up, however. In fact, sales of new condos were down 47 per cent, year over year, thanks to the red hot market of 2017.

Still, contrasted against the 10-year average, condo apartment sales were down by only one per cent in May. Single-family home sales, on the other hand, were down 33 per cent from last May and a full 78 per cent from the 10-year average.

Patricia Arsenault of Altus Group, BILD's official source for market intelligence, said in a release that "new condominium apartment sales were very encouraging" in the month of May. 

"Not only was it the strongest month since last November, but the sales of 2,003 units are impressive in historical terms," she continued. "There have only been five other years where May new condominium apartment sales topped this year’s performance."

New home market in the GTA buoyed by stronger condo apartment sales in May. Read our new home market data release: https://t.co/fqe0FEpP5B pic.twitter.com/nQTuMg37WA

— BILD (@bildgta) June 21, 2018

Condominium prices continue to rise in the new-home market as well, reinforcing a trend that analysts been observing in Toronto's real estate market overall.

BILD reports that the benchmark price for new condos in low, medium and high-rise buildings, as well as stacked townhouses and loft units, rose 25.4 per cent last month, year over year, to $758,370.

The same measure for new single-family homes shows a price drop of 6.4 per cent since last May at $1,144,191.

Analysts credit rising condo prices, at least in part, to an increase in the average size of new units (892 square feet last month compared to 814 square feet last May) and to new home buyers looking for "more affordable options" than houses.