OTTAWA, July 16, 2012 /CNW/ – According to statistics released today by
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national resale housing
activity edged lower on a month-over-month basis in June 2012. Price
gains remained strong in Toronto, continued slowing in Greater
Vancouver, and accelerated in Calgary.

Highlights:

• Home sales down 1.3% from May to June.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 4.4% below levels in
  June 2011, marking the first year-over-year decline since April 2011.
• The number of newly listed homes climbed 1.4% from May to June.
• Fewer sales and a rise in new listings resulted in a more balanced
  national housing market.
• The national average home price slipped 0.8% on a year-over-year basis
  in June.
• The Aggregate Composite Benchmark home price was up 5.12% year-over-year
  in June.

Sales over Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) Systems in Canada eased 1.3
per cent on a month-over-month basis in June 2012. This follows a 3.4
per cent decline posted in May. National activity was down from the
previous month in slightly more than half of all local markets, with
Greater Toronto and Vancouver contributing most to the small decline.

“Canada’s housing market lost a little altitude in June, but it’s still
flying pretty high,” said Wayne Moen, CREA President. “That said, sales
activity and average prices bucked the national easing trend in a
number of markets, which underscores that all real estate is local.
Buyers and sellers should talk to their REALTOR® to understand how the
housing market is shaping up in their area.”

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 4.4 per cent in June
2012 compared to the same month last year. This marks the first
year-over-year decline in national activity since April 2011.

Boosted by strong activity in March and April, a total of 257,193 homes
traded hands over Canadian MLS® Systems in the first half of 2012. This
is up 4.7 per cent from levels reported over the same period in 2011,
and marks the strongest sales for the first half of any year since
2007.

“Home buyers didn’t rush their purchases before the most recently
announced changes to mortgage regulations came into effect,” said
Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “That’s a big change compared to
what we saw as a response to previously announced changes. It will take
some time before the compound effect of previous and recent changes to
regulations on Canada’s housing market becomes apparent.”

The number of newly listed homes rose 1.4 per cent in June compared to
May. The uptick was led by a second consecutive increase of new supply
in Toronto. Some 42 local markets, out of 100 markets across the
country, registered a monthly increase in new listings of at least one
per cent.

The decline in sales activity combined with an uptick in new listings
resulted in a more balanced national housing market in June. The
national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance,
stood at 51.7 per cent in June 2012, compared to 53.1 per cent in May.
Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent,
nearly two thirds of all local markets were in balanced market
territory in June as the number of sellers markets declined.

Nationally, the number of months of inventory stood at six months at the
end of June, up slightly from 5.9 months of inventory at the end of
May. 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 a further measure of the balance between housing
supply and demand.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes
sold in June 2012 was $369,339, down 0.8 per cent from the same month
last year. While average sale prices in June were up year-on-year in about seven out of every 10 local markets,
the national average price continued to be skewed downward by
compositional factors – most notably by fewer sales in Vancouver in
recent months compared to stronger levels last year. By way of
demonstrating the impact of compositional changes on the average
calculation, netting Vancouver out of the national average price
calculation yields a 3.2 per cent year-over-year increase.

The MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) is a more accurate measure of
Canadian home price trends, since it is not distorted up or down by
changes in the mix of sales. It tracks home price trends in five of
Canada’s most active housing markets, including Greater Vancouver, the
Fraser Valley, Calgary, Greater Toronto, and Montreal. These markets
account for nearly half of all home sales activity over Canadian MLS®
Systems.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose 5.1 per cent from May to June
2012. This represents a slight deceleration from the 5.2 per cent gain
reported in May.

The year-over-year increase was again highest in Greater Toronto (7.9%),
followed by Calgary (5.6%), Greater Montreal (2.7%), the Fraser Valley
(2.6%), and Greater Vancouver (1.7%).

Among Benchmark housing types tracked by the index, two-storey single
family homes continued to post the strongest year-over-year growth in
June (6.6%). Gains for one-storey single family homes (6.0%) also
surpassed the rise in the overall index, while townhouses and
apartments saw more modest gains (3.1% and 2.7% respectively).

Year-over-year-gains have moderated in all Benchmark housing categories
except one-storey single family homes. Driven by increases in Greater
Toronto and Calgary, prices in this category rose at the fastest pace
in nearly two years in June.

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 neighborhoods or account for
price differential between geographic areas.

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 104,000
REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and
Associations.

Further information can be found at http://crea.ca/statistics

For further information:

Pierre Leduc, Media Relations
The Canadian Real Estate Association
Tel.: 613-237-7111 or 613-884-1460