Canadian home sales up in August

Canadian home sales edge higher in September

Published October 15, 2013 Uncategorized 

Ottawa, ON, October 15, 2013 – According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales posted a small month-over-month increase in September 2013.

Highlights:

• National home sales edged up by 0.8% from August to September.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 18.2% above levels in September 2012.
• The number of newly listed homes declined by 1.4% from August to September.
• The Canadian housing market has tightened but continues to remain balanced.
• The national average sale price rose 8.8% on a year-over-year basis in September.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 3.1% year-over-year in September.

The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations and other co-operative listing systems edged up a modest eight-tenths of one percent on a month-over-month basis in September 2013.

Sales improved on a month-over-month basis in just over half of all local markets, with gains in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto offsetting declines in Calgary and Montreal.

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity remained roughly on par with the 10-year average in September. The 18.2 per cent increase compared to year-ago levels reflects weakened activity at that time.

Sales were up on a year-over-year basis in about 75 per cent of local markets, led by gains in Greater Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Greater Toronto.

“Year-over-year increases in the sales over the past couple of months highlights how activity softened across much of the country following the introduction of tighter mortgage rules last summer,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist.

“While the momentum for sales activity began improving a few months ago, it may be losing steam after having only just climbed back in line with an average of the past 10 years,” Klump added. “Even so, one can see large year-on-year changes when comparing activity to a month like September 2012, when sales dropped to the lowest level for that month in more than a decade.”

Some 340,980 homes have traded hands across the country so far this year. That stands 1.8 per cent below levels recorded in the first three quarters of 2012.

The number of newly listed homes declined by 1.4 per cent on a month-over-month basis in September. Slightly more than half of all local markets recorded declines, led by Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Calgary, Greater Toronto, London & St. Thomas, Ottawa, and Montreal.

The small monthly increase in sales activity combined with a decline in new listings pushed the national sales-to-new listings ratio to 56.1 per cent in September compared to 54.8 per cent in August. While the national housing market has firmed in recent months, it remains in balanced market territory where it has been since early 2010. Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, about three of every five local markets were in balanced market territory in September.

“Sales activity across much of the country has improved in recent months following a slow start to the year and new listings in some areas have not kept pace,” said CREA President Laura Leyser. “Depending on where they are, there may be a bit more competition among buyers for limited inventory in the months ahead. Because all real estate is local, your REALTOR® remains your best resource for understanding how the housing market is shaping up either where you live or might like to.”

The number of months of inventory is another important measure of balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to completely liquidate current inventories at the current rate of sales activity. There were 5.8 months of inventory at the national level at the end of September, down from 5.9 months one month earlier. As with the sales-to-new listings ratio, the current months of inventory measure marks a slightly firmer but still well balanced national market.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in September 2013 was $385,906, an increase of 8.8 per cent from the same month last year. Year-over-year average price gains in recent months reflect the decline in sales activity recorded last year in some of Canada’s larger and more expensive markets which caused the national average price to drop.

If Greater Toronto, Greater Vancouver, and Calgary are removed from the national average price calculation, the year-over-year increase is 4.3 per cent. A better gauge of what’s going on with prices is the MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI), which is not affected by changes in the mix of sales the way that ‘average’ price is.

This month, Victoria and Vancouver Island join the MLS® HPI.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose 3.13 per cent compared to September 2012, slightly larger than the 2.80 per cent gain in August.

Year-over-year price growth picked up among all property types tracked by the index with the exception of two-storey single family homes. That said, this property type continues to see the strongest growth, with the Benchmark two-storey single family home price up 3.56 per cent year-over-year in September.

This was followed by one-storey single family homes (+3.44 per cent), townhouse/row units (+3 per cent) and apartment units (+1.79 per cent).

Year-over-year price growth in the MLS® HPI was mixed across the markets tracked by the index.

– 30 –

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national sales information from MLS® Systems from the previous month.

CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighbourhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.

MLS® Systems are co-operative marketing systems used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada’s largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 106,000 REALTORS® working through more than 90 real estate Boards and Associations.

Canadian Home Sales Edge Higher in April

Home sales up 0.8% from March to April

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 11.5% above levels in april 2011

The size of the year-over-year increase reflects a slowdown in sales last April following changes to mortgage rules which came into effect on March 18, 2011

The number of newly listed homes edged back 0.2% from March to April.

The national average home price edged up 0.9% on a year-over-year basis in April.

Canadian Home Prices Higher In February 2012

Canadian Home Prices Edge Higher in February




http://creanews.ca/2012/03/15/canadian-home-sales-edge-higher-in-february/

Canadian home sales pull back in January

« Bank of Canada keeps interest rates on hold

Canadian home sales pull back in January

OTTAWA – February 15, 2012 – According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national resale housing activity retreated in January 2012 from the strong finish reported for December 2011.

Highlights:

• Home sales were down 4.5% from December to January.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 4.0% above levels in January 2011, and stood even with the 5 and 10 year averages for January sales.
• The number of newly listed homes edged down 1.4% from December to January.
• With sales down by more than new listings, the national market shifted further into balanced territory.
• The national average home price was up less than 2% year-over-year in January, ranking it among the smallest increases of the past year.

Sales activity recorded through the MLS® Systems of real estate Boards and Associations in Canada fell 4.5 per cent from December 2011 to January 2012. This marks the first monthly decline in national activity since August 2011 and the biggest monthly decline since July 2010. The monthly decline reversed a string of monthly increases over the closing months of last year, and returned national activity to where it stood at the end of the third quarter of 2011.

“The national housing market is stabilizing and remains well balanced,” said Gary Morse, CREA’s President. “That said, forecasts for economic and job growth going forward vary widely for different parts of the country, suggesting a possible continuation of a softening trend in some markets, as well as the potential that demand will pick up based on strong fundamentals in others. All real estate is local, so talk to your local REALTOR® to understand how price trends in your neighbourhood are shaping up.”

Activity was down in over half of all local markets in January from the previous month. Led by declines in Greater Toronto and Montréal, demand also softened in a number of other major urban centres including the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Greater Vancouver.

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) national sales activity was up four per cent from year-ago levels in January, the smallest year-over-year increase since last May. As was the case in a number of months last year, actual sales in January 2012 stood close to the five and ten year average for the month.

The number of newly listed homes edged down 1.4 per cent on a month-over-month basis in January following a 2.9 per cent increase in December. The monthly decline in new supply reflects a drop in new listings in a number of Canada’s largest urban centres, which offset a jump in new listings in Vancouver.

Sales fell in January shifting the national market back towards the mid-point of balanced territory and reversing the recent trend which had seen the market becoming tighter over the final four months of 2011. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 53.8 per cent in January, down from 55.5 per cent in December and 55.4 per cent in November.

Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, 60 per cent of local markets were balanced in January. Compared to December, there were fewer buyers’ and sellers’ markets, and a greater number of balanced markets.

The number of months of inventory stood at six months at the end of January on a national basis, up from 5.7 months in December 2011 and returning it to where it stood in October 2011. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in January 2012 was $348,178, representing an increase of 1.2 per cent from its year-ago level. This ranks among the smallest increases since late 2010.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the national average home price rose 1.6 per cent on a month-over-month basis, marking a rebound from a decline of similar magnitude in December. This pattern mirrors the one playing out in the newly-launched MLS® Home Price Index (HPI), published on February 6.

“Year-over-year comparisons in the national average price are expected to become volatile and may turn negative, reflecting average price developments in the first half of 2011 in Vancouver,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “At that time, high-end home sales in Vancouver’s priciest neighbourhoods surged to all-time record levels, which skewed the national average price upward considerably. A replay of this phenomenon is not expected this year. As a result, comparisons for national average price to year-ago levels over the coming months will reflect an upwardly skewed base effect. For this reason, year-over-year comparisons should be kept in perspective. Developments in the MLS® HPI will provide important guidance on price trends, since it is not affected by the problem of compositional shifts in the mix of sales activity.”

The MLS® HPI also takes into account the contributions toward the price of a home made by a broad range of quantitative and qualitative housing features, allowing it to track Canadian home price trends better than any other measure.

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national MLS® sales information from the previous month.

CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighbourhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas.

Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.

MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada’s largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 100,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations.

Further information can be found athttp://www.crea.ca/public/news_stats/media.htm.

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Real Estate Forecast 2012

Our world is interrelated. To talk about Real Estate in Your area. We must look at Global Markets, Global economies and it eventually filters down to our area…. Your area! Where you live. Where you want to live. Case it point, the effect interest rates have on the housing industry.

Here is a short rundown of what happened generally in 2011 and a brief forecast for 2012, courtesy of Toronto Real Estate board. Remember, no one has a crystal ball and all neighbourhoods are different.

“Low borrowing costs kept Buyers confident in their ability to comfortably cover their mortgage payments along with other major housing costs,” said TREB President Richard Silver. “If Buyers had not been constrained by a shortage of listings over the past 12 months, we would have been flirting with a new sales record in the Greater Toronto Area,” added Silver.The average selling price in December was $451,436 – up four per cent compared to December 2010. For all of 2011, the average selling price was $465,412, an increase of eight per cent in comparison to the average of $431,276 in 2010. “Months of inventory remained below the pre-recession norm in 2011. Very tight market conditions meant substantial competition between Buyers and strong upward pressure on selling prices,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “TREB’s baseline forecast for 2012 is for an average price of $485,000, representing a more moderate four per cent annual rate of price growth. This baseline view is subject to a heightened degree of risk given the uncertain global economic outlook,” continued Mercer.

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Clarkson Marketwatch August 2011

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