The Greater Toronto Area new homes market broke a record in July, but this time, it's very bad news for the turbulent real estate biz.

The region just witnessed the single-lowest number of single-family home sales in the over two decades this data has been tracked, reflecting waning demand from shellshocked buyers amid a pressing lack of inventory.

A July market report from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) shows just 97 single-family homes sold during the month.

This figure includes detached, linked, and semi-detached houses and townhouses across the entire GTA region, and marks the only instance of single-family sales dropping below 100 units in the 22 years of data tracking by market analysts Altus Group.

Despite the apparent sticker shock buyers may be experiencing in the wake of hiked interest rates and historic inflation, the benchmark price of a new house is way up year-over-year, rising 27.4 per cent to $1,933,912.

As buyers pulled away from the single-family home market in July, the GTA condo market experienced a five per cent year-over-year increase in sales with 1,777 units sold, hovering three per cent above the ten-year average.

Benchmark condo prices are also on the rise, increasing by 9.2 per cent in the last year to $1,191,716 in July.

"New condominium apartment sales posted a robust July, buoyed by buyer resiliency and stable prices," said Edward Jegg, Research Manager at Altus Group. "In contrast, new single-family sales posted a record low in the face of slowing demand and a shortage of inventory."

This shortage of inventory is only getting worse. According to the report, total new home remaining inventory decreased compared to the previous month, now standing at just 10,848 units.

BILD warns that there are only 3.4 months of condominium inventory and 2.4 months of single-family home inventory, compared to the 9-12 months considered a healthy market.

Even in the face of a dismal performance from the single-family home market segment, BILD President & CEO Dave Wilkes, maintains that "long-term demand for new homes is not going anywhere, despite short-term market trends," though he admits that there is "a monumental challenge ahead of us."

"We have to build the 1.5 million new homes Ontario needs to address the housing crisis, which is centred on the GTA," said Wilkes.

He stresses that with an election around the corner, "all residents of Ontario, especially those in the GTA, need to ask their candidates how they will champion concrete steps to address the housing challenge."