CANADA – According to statistics recently released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales posted a sizeable decline in May 2017.
Highlights:
- National home sales dropped 6.2% from April to May.
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity in May stood 1.6% below last May’s level.
- The number of newly listed homes edged up 0.3% from April to May.
- The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) was up 17.9% year-over-year (y-o-y) in May 2017.
- The national average sale price advanced by 4.3% y-o-y in May.
The number of homes sold via Canadian MLS Systems fell by 6.2% in May 2017 compared to April. The month-over-month (m-o-m) percentage decline was the largest since August 2012.
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis in May, with year-over-year (y-o-y) gains in about 60% of all local housing markets offset by the sharp drop in the GTA (20.8% y-o-y).
The number of newly listed homes edged up a further 0.3% in May following April’s jump of almost 10%.
With sales down considerably in May, the national sales-to-new listings ratio moved out of sellers’ territory and back into balanced market territory for the first time since late 2015. The ratio stood at 56.3% in May 2017, down from 60.2% in April and the high-60% range over the first three months of this year.
A sales-to-new listings ratio between 40 and 60 is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings below and above this range indicating buyers’ and sellers’ markets respectively.
There were 4.7 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of May 2017, up from 4.3 months in April and 4.1 months in March. This returns the measure to where it was for much of 2016.
The Aggregate Composite MLS HPI rose by 17.9% y-o-y in May 2017 compared to 19.8% in April. Price gains slowed sharply for single family homes.
Price gains accelerated for apartment units, which posted the largest y-o-y gains in May (+20.5%). Meanwhile, prices gains braked for benchmark low-rise homes (townhouse/row units: +19.3% y-o-y; two-storey single family homes: +18.4% y-o-y; one-storey single family homes: +14.5% y-o-y).
While benchmark home prices were up from year-ago levels in 11 of 13 housing markets tracked by the MLS HPI, price trends continued to vary widely by location.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in May 2017 was $530,304, up 4.3% from where it stood one year earlier.
Additional analysis and statistics are available at the following link.
