Stakeholders are calling for a bonkers year in Toronto's housing market, saying that as the city makes up for last year's relative calm in the face of high interest rates, average home prices will end up surging past notoriously expensive Vancouver's to become the highest in the country.

Royal LePage's latest update and forecast, released Friday, predicts that the cost of the typical piece of real estate in Canada will spike nine per cent by the end of the year compared to the same time in 2023.

This will be particularly bad in places like the Toronto area, which the firm says will not only see some of the most rapid escalation in prices, but will be home to the highest prices of any Canadian city.

Per the report, the aggregate cost of a home in the GTA will increase 10 per cent year-over-year in the final quarter of 2024 — to a whopping $1,235,630 — beating out Calgary, which was on track to hold the title of fastest-rising real estate prices.

The Montreal area will see a similar, though slightly lesser boom, with prices climbing by 8.5 per cent year-over-year (to only $614,978).

The price tag of a home in Vancouver, meanwhile, is set to rise 5.5 per cent, on average. Though this figure for the quarter overall will average to $1,287,205, Royal LePage says that at some point in those three months, "the lines will cross and home prices in Toronto will be ahead of those in Vancouver."

Factors driving the push upwards include "chronically low" housing stock in cities nationwide, interest rate cuts coming later in the year, and would-be buyers' acceptance of currently-high rates.

"Clearly, more and more buyers are motivated by the need to get ahead of rising home prices, rather than adopting the strategy of waiting for mortgage rates to fall," Royal LePage's experts write.

Of Toronto specifically, they add that this year so far has already been "busier than expected" despite stubbornly high prices and interest rates compounding the city's serious lack of affordability.

"What we've seen so far this year is a boost in sales volumes and prices even greater than predicted. We should see a seasonal pick-up in spring market activity and an even busier fall."