CANADA – Home sales via Canadian MLS® Systems rose for the fourth month in a row in November 2017, up 3.9 per cent from October. The system also reported an 18.5 per cent price increase on Vancouver Island, compared to a year earlier.
In November, benchmark home prices rose by about 14 per cent compared to last year in Victoria and by 18.5 per cent elsewhere on Vancouver Island.
Sales activity was also up across the country, led by a 16 per cent jump in sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity rose 2.6 per cent year-over-year, setting a new record for the month of November. It was the first such increase since March.
A number of other large markets posted year-over-year activity gains, including Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Montreal.
“Some home buyers with more than a twenty percent down payment may be fast-tracking their purchase decision in order to beat the tougher mortgage qualifications test coming into effect next year,” said Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) President Andrew Peck.
“Evidence of this is mixed and depends on the housing market. It will be interesting to see whether December sales show further signs of home purchases being fast-tracked.”
“National sales momentum remains positive heading toward year-end,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “It remains to be seen whether stronger momentum now will mean weaker activity early next year once new mortgage regulations take effect beginning on New Year’s Day.”
Based on a comparison of the sales-to-new listings ratio, more than half of all local markets were in balanced market territory in November 2017, with neither buyers or sellers holding an advantage.
The Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose by 9.3 per cent year-over-year in November 2017.
Apartment units again posted the largest year-over-year gains in November, up 19.4 per cent, followed by townhouse/row units at 12.3 per cent; one-storey single family homes at 6 per cent; and two-storey single family homes at 5.3 per cent.
Benchmark home prices were up compared to last year in 11 of the 13 markets tracked by the home price index.
After having dipped in the second half of last year, benchmark home prices in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia have recovered and now stand at new highs: Greater Vancouver prices are up 14 per cent in a year and Fraser Valley prices are up 8.5 per cent.
The actual national average price for homes sold in November 2017 was just under $504,000, up 2.9 per cent from one year earlier. However, this national average price is heavily skewed by sales in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, two of Canada’s most active and expensive markets. Excluding these two markets from calculations trims more than $120,000 from the national average price, which then drops to just above $381,000.
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