Good news for Canadian home owners
Tagged as: canada, canadian home resale, home values, mortgage, rates
Canadian home resale prices rise to record in May
For those of us home owners who have been watching with angst as home prices south of the border have collapsed precipitously, there is some welcome news: resale prices for Canadian homes rose to their highest average on record in May. This is in the context the fourth straight month of increases in sales activity, and improving consumer confidence.
This is particularly good news for those of us on the West Coast, where we’ve seen the greatest gain. Interestingly, these gains in the West, where there are some of the nation’s most expensive markets, are skewing the national average price. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average home price has recovered 16.4 percent from the lows reached in January.
Of course, this is terrible news for first-time home buyers, especially in British Columbia where we “enjoy” the country’s most expensive residential real estate. The effect of this is partially offset by the lowest mortgage rates in decades.
This is the first year-over-year increase since May 2008.
Home sales rose 8 percent to 37,649 units in May from April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase on a seasonally adjusted basis.
As Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, point out: “In the short space of about 18 months, the housing market has gone full circle from a sellers’ market, to a flat-out buyers’ market, and back to a sellers’ market.”





