Greater Toronto Area home prices appeared to plateau in January after being in free fall and depressing sales since spring, the region's real estate board said Friday.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board calculated the home price index to be $1,078,900 for last month, a slight drop from $1,081,400 in December.

The average home price followed the same pattern with January coming in at $1,038,668, which was little changed from $1,051,031 in December.

The flattening follows several months of steady declines, which caused prices to fall nearly 20 per cent from their spring peak and 16.4 per cent from a year ago.

The fall has largely been attributed to rising interest rates, which tend to move in tandem with mortgage rates and weigh on homebuyer sentiment.

With the Bank of Canada hiking the interest rate eight times in the last year alone, potential sellers have left their homes off the market, while buyers have sat waiting for prices to hit their bottom.

"There’s a standoff in the housing market with few people wanting to sell amid falling prices, and even fewer looking to buy amid higher borrowing costs," Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, BMO Capital Markets senior economist, said in a note to investors.

However, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has indicated the central bank will pause hiking interest rates as it assesses the economy and inflation.

"Although rates will remain high for some time, at least the forward guidance provides some clarity, allowing sidelined buyers to enter the market knowing that we are around peak rates," said Thiagamoorthy.

Their pattern of holding off has left January home sales down 44.6 per cent from the same month a year ago. The sales last month totalled 3,100, a shift from 5,594 a year earlier, when the market adopted a frenzied pace and bidding wars were the norm.

New listings were down 3.7 per cent year over year at 7,688, but were up from 4,074 in December, while active listings were up 124.6 per cent from last year.

Several in the housing market believe sidelined buyers and sellers will soon be ready to make their long-awaited moves.

“We are seeing a huge increase in pre-approvals. A lot more than I was expecting,” said Victor Tran of Ratesdotca, in a news release.

“The Bank of Canada announcement coupled with OFSI looking into tightening lending regulations has signalled to many potential homebuyers that the time to buy is now.”