Updated: Sun Sep. 20 2009 7:51:34 PM ctvtoronto.ca

Toronto's housing market is heating up, and on Sunday, hundreds of house hunters spent a sunny day scoping neighbourhoods all around the city for open houses.

Though housing markets in most Canadian cities took a big hit during the 2008 financial meltdown and subsequent recession, there are signs that the local market is again picking up steam.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reports that housing sales in July and August were up 27 per cent over the same time last year. Prices were also up six per cent, the Board said.

And those statistics seemed apparent over the weekend.

CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney spent the Sunday in several city neighbourhoods, where he spotted dozens new 'For Sale' signs -- many of them marked with 'Sold.'

On the other side of the buyers is Janet Sinclair, a real estate agent who was showing a $799,000 brick home in the east-end Beach neighbourhood.

"I'm hoping to have an offer today," she told CTV Toronto. "Inventory is actually down. When it goes down, people will jump."

Not long after that prediction, buyer Ivana Stohanovic said she was checking out the home and considering a purchase.

She liked what she saw.

"We don't need to do anything. If we moved in, we would just clean carpets, nothing else. And I'm looking for something like that."

Real estate agent Thomas Neal said that people are again testing the markets and looking to buy after months of poor sales.

"I think people are starting to get their feet wet," he said, adding that some sellers are remaining cautious.

Case in point: one home in the Upper Beaches area of Scarborough was listed in June at $849,000.

The price has since dropped to $799,000, and the seller has yet to purchase a new home.