OTTAWA, July 15, 2013 /CNW/ – According to statistics released today by
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales rose
in June 2013, building on gains recorded over the previous three
months.
Highlights:
- National home sales rose 3.3% from May to June.
-
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 0.6% below levels in
June 2012. - The number of newly listed homes edged down 0.5% from May to June.
-
The Canadian housing market has tightened but remains in balanced
territory. -
The national average sale price rose 4.8% on a year-over-year basis in
June. - The MLS® HPI rose 2.3% year-over-year in June.
The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of real
estate Boards and Associations and other cooperative listing systems in
Canada rose 3.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis in June 2013. This
marks the fourth consecutive monthly increase, with activity now
running 11 per cent above where it stood in February.
Home sales improved in two-thirds of all local markets in June,
including almost all large urban markets. The biggest gains were
reported in Victoria, Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Montreal.
“For the second month in a row, sales improved in the majority of local
markets,” said CREA President Laura Leyser. “Whether those gains
reflect temporary factors or a fundamental improvement after a slow
start to the year really depends on where you are. Your REALTOR® is
your best resource for understanding what’s driving the local housing
market where you live or might like to.”
“Increases in mortgage interest rates likely prompted some buyers with
pre-approved mortgages to jump off the sidelines and into the market in
June, particularly in larger, more expensive urban markets where
affordability is strained,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist.
“We have seen this happen before. If fixed mortgage rates continue
holding where they are or edge slightly higher, sales may ebb over the
summer and early autumn, with slightly higher borrowing costs picking
up where the finance minister left off last year to keep the housing
market in check.”
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 0.6 per cent below
levels reported in June 2012. When compared to year-ago levels, the
number of local markets was split evenly between those with
year-over-year declines and those that posted gains in June. Greater
Toronto and Montreal remain below year-ago levels, although their
declines continue to shrink. Meanwhile, sales in Greater Vancouver,
Calgary, and Edmonton were up compared to last June.
Some 240,068 homes have traded hands across the country so far this
year. That stands 6.9 per cent below levels in the first half of 2012,
when mortgage rules and guidelines had not yet been tightened. While
the gap between sales this year and last year is expected to diminish,
annual sales are still expected to fall short of last year’s total.
The number of newly listed homes edged down 0.5 per cent on a
month-over-month basis in June. New listings rose in a number of
Canada’s most active markets including Greater Vancouver, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Hamilton-Burlington, Oakville-Milton, and Quebec
City. This was offset by a decline in new listings in a number of other
large urban centres including the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Greater
Toronto, London St. Thomas, Montreal and Fredericton.
With sales activity up and new listings down, the national sales-to-new
listings ratio rose to 53.8 per cent in June from 51.8 per cent in May,
but remains firmly rooted 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, two-thirds of all local markets were in
balanced market territory in June.
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.
The number of months of inventory also indicates that Canada’s housing
market remains balanced. There were 6.1 months of inventory at the end
of June 2013, down slightly from 6.3 months at the end of May.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes
sold in June 2013 was $386,585, an increase of 4.8 per cent from the
same month last year.
“Just as declines in the national average price at this time last year
reflected a drop in sales activity in some of Canada’s most expensive
housing markets, much of the increase in the national average price in
May and June can be attributed to recovering demand in those same
markets, particularly Greater Vancouver,” Klump said. “A better gauge
of what’s going on with prices is the MLS® Home Price Index, which is
not affected by changes in the mix of sales the way the average price
is. The index shows year-over-year price growth stabilizing at a rate
barely ahead of inflation.”
The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose 2.3 per cent compared to June
2012. Year-over-year growth in the MLS® HPI had been slowing since late
2011, but has held steady near its current rate for four months.
Year-over-year price growth picked up for two-storey single family
homes (+3.0 per cent) but slowed for all other Benchmark property types
tracked by the index. Prices for one-storey single family homes were up
3.1 per cent yea-rover-year in June, followed by townhouse/row units
(+1.6 per cent), and apartment units (+0.4 per cent).
Year-over-year price growth in the MLS® HPI was mixed across the markets
tracked by the index.
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 106,000
REALTORS® working through more than 90 real estate Boards and
Associations.
Further information can be found at http://crea.ca/statistics
.
SOURCE: Canadian Real Estate Association
For further information:
Linda Kristal, Director of Communications
The Canadian Real Estate Association
Tel.: 613-237-7111
E-mail: lkristal@crea.ca