Canadian property sales up third month in a row
Photo: BrianFagan
Sales of Canadian property have risen for the third month in a row, taking activity back to the same level as the second half of last year.
New figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association shows that the number of home sales processed through its MLS systems rose 2.3 per cent in April 2015 from March.
April sales were up from the previous month in two-thirds of all local markets, led by the Greater Toronto Area, the surrounding Golden Horseshoe region, and Montreal.
"As expected, low mortgage interest rates and the onset of spring ushered many homebuyers off the sidelines, particularly in regions where winter was long and bitter," explains CREA President Pauline Aunger.
"In recent years, the seasonal pattern for home sales and listings has become amplified in places where listings are in short supply relative to demand," adds Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. "This particularly stands out in and around Toronto. Sellers there have increasingly delayed listing their home until spring. Once listed, it sells fairly quickly. Sales over the year as a whole in Southern Ontario are likely being constrained to some degree by a short supply of single family homes. However, the busy spring home buying and selling season has become that much busier as a result of sellers waiting until winter has faded before listing."
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity in April stood 10 per cent above levels reported in April 2014. This marks just the third time ever that sales during the month of April topped 50,000 transactions.
Sales were up on a year-over-year basis in about 70 per cent of all local markets, led by activity in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Greater Toronto, and Montreal. Of the 18 local markets that set new records for the month of April, all but two are in Southern Ontario.
The number of newly listed homes was virtually unchanged (up 0.1 per cent) in April. Below the surface, new supply rose in almost two thirds of all local markets, led by a big rebound in Halifax-Dartmouth following a sharp drop in March. This was offset by declines in Greater Vancouver, Victoria, and the Okanagan Region, as well as by a continuing pullback in new supply in Calgary.
The national sales-to-new listings ratio was 55.3 per cent in April, up from 50.4 per cent three months earlier. A sales-to-new listings ratio of 60 per cent or higher indicates a strong sellers' market.
Price gains varied among housing markets tracked by the index. For the third consecutive month, Greater Vancouver (+8.50 per cent) and Greater Toronto (+8.43 per cent) posted the biggest year-over-year price increases. By comparison, Fraser Valley, Victoria, and Vancouver Island recorded gains in the range between 2.7 per cent and 4.0 per cent.
Price growth in Calgary continued to slow, with a year-over-year increase of just 2.21 per cent in April, the smallest gain in three years and the tenth consecutive month for which the gain diminished.
The national average home price continues to be upwardly distorted by sales activity in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, which are among Canada’s most active and expensive housing markets. Excluding these two markets from calculations, the average price is a more modest $339,893 and the year-over-year gain shrinks to 3.4 per cent.