CANADA – Statistics released in January by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), show national home sales continued to climb in December 2017.
Highlights:
- National home sales rose 4.5 per cent from November to December;
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 4.1 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y);
- The number of newly listed homes climbed 3.3 per cent from November to December;
- The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) in December was up 9.1 per cent y-o-y; and
- The national average sale price advanced by 5.7 per cent y-o-y.
Home sales via Canadian MLS Systems posted their fifth consecutive monthly increase in December 2017, fully recovering from the slump last summer.
Activity in December was up in close to 60 per cent of all local markets, led by the markets in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island along with Greater Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton-Burlington, and Winnipeg.
Actual activity was up 4.1 per cent compared to December 2016. There were sizeable y-o-y gains in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, along with Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal.
“Monthly momentum for national home sales activity gained strength late last year and further expected economic and job growth will buoy sales activity this year despite slightly higher expected interest rates,” said CREA President Andrew Peck.
“National home sales in December were likely boosted by seasonal adjustment factors and a potential pull-forward of demand before new mortgage regulations came into effect this year,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist.
“It will be interesting to see if monthly sales activity continues to rise despite the tighter mortgage regulations that took effect on January 1.”
The number of newly listed homes rose 3.3 per cent in December. New listings and sales have both trended higher since August. As a result, the sales-to-new listings ratio has remained in the mid-to-high 50 per cent range since then.
After having dipped in the second half of last year, composite benchmark home prices in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia have recovered and now stand at new highs:
- Greater Vancouver: up 15.9 per cent y-o-y; and
- Fraser Valley: +20.9 per cent y-o-y).
Benchmark home prices rose by about 14 per cent on a y-o-y basis in Victoria and by about 19 per cent elsewhere on Vancouver Island in December. These y-o-y gains were similar to those recorded in October and November.
The actual national average price for homes sold in December 2017 was just over $496,500, up 5.7 per cent from one year earlier. The national average price is heavily skewed by sales in Greater Vancouver and Toronto, two of Canada’s most active and expensive markets. Excluding these two markets from calculations trims almost $116,000 from the national average price to just under $381,000.
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