Canadian home sales rise nearly 1% in August: CREA

Statistics released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show a small increase in national home sales in August, but the housing market continues to slow relative to its hot pace in recent years.

National home sales rose 0.9% in August, the fourth consecutive monthly gain, said CREA in a release. “However, sales activity is still running below levels in most other months going back to early 2014,” it said.

In the release, Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said that improving national home sales activity obscures “significant” differences in regional trends for home sales and prices. “Moreover, recent monthly sales increases are diminishing, which suggests that the recent rebound may be starting to lose steam,” he said.

The monthly gain in sales was led by the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), followed by Montreal and Edmonton.

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 3.8% year over year, due mainly to declines in B.C.’s major urban centres.

“The new stress-test on mortgage applicants implemented earlier this year continues to weigh on national home sales,” said CREA president Barb Sukkau in the release. “The degree to which the stress-test continues to sideline homebuyers varies depending on location, housing type and price range.

The number of newly listed homes was unchanged from July to August, as new-supply gains in the Greater Vancouver Area and Montreal offset declines in the GTA and Winnipeg, said CREA.

Based on a comparison of the sales-to-new listings ratio with the long-term average, about two-thirds of all local markets were in balanced market territory in August, it said.

The MLS home price index was up 2.5% year over year in August, and the national average sale price was up 1% year over year, at $475,500.

Price trends vary widely among housing markets tracked by the index.

For example, home price gains are decreasing year over year—some in the double digits—in the Lower Mainland of B.C., while prices in Victoria were up 8.5% year over year in August.

For the same period, home prices rose 7.1% in Ottawa, about 6% in Greater Montreal and almost 5% in Greater Moncton.

GTA prices were up 1.4%.

Staff

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