Ottawa, ON– According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national resale housing activity edged lower on a month-over-month basis in June 2012. Price gains remained strong in Toronto, continued slowing in Highlights:
- Home sales down 1.3% from May to June.
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 4.4% below levels in June 2011, marking the first year-over-year decline since April 2011.
- The number of newly listed homes climbed 1.4% from May to June.
- Fewer sales and a rise in new listings resulted in a more balanced national housing market.
- The national average home price slipped 0.8% on a year-over-year basis in June.
- The Aggregate Composite Benchmark home price was up 5.12% year-over-year in June.
“Canada’s housing market lost a little altitude in June, but it’s still flying pretty high,” said Wayne Moen, CREA President. “That said, sales activity and average prices bucked the national easing trend in a number of markets, which underscores that all real estate is local. Buyers and sellers should talk to their REALTOR® to understand how the housing market is shaping up in their area.”
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 4.4 per cent in June 2012 compared to the same month last year. This marks the first year-over-year decline in national activity since April 2011.
Boosted by strong activity in March and April, a total of 257,193 homes traded hands over Canadian MLS® Systems in the first half of 2012. This is up 4.7 per cent from levels reported over the same period in 2011, and marks the strongest sales for the first half of any year since 2007.
“Home buyers didn’t rush their purchases before the most recently announced changes to mortgage regulations came into effect,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “That’s a big change compared to what we saw as a response to previously announced changes. It will take some time before the compound effect of previous and recent changes to regulations on Canada’s housing market becomes apparent.”
The number of newly listed homes rose 1.4 per cent in June compared to May. The uptick was led by a second consecutive increase of new supply in Toronto. Some 42 local markets, out of 100 markets across the country, registered a monthly increase in new listings of at least one per cent.
The decline in sales activity combined with an uptick in new listings resulted in a more balanced national housing market in June. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 51.7 per cent in June 2012, compared to 53.1 per cent in May. Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, nearly two thirds of all local markets were in balanced market territory in June as the number of sellers markets declined.
Nationally, the number of months of inventory stood at six months at the end of June, up slightly from 5.9 months of inventory at the end of May. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is a further measure of the balance between housing supply and demand.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in June 2012 was $369,339, down 0.8 per cent from the same month last year. While average sale prices in June were up year-on-year in about seven out of every 10 local markets, the national average price continued to be skewed downward by compositional factors – most notably by fewer sales in Vancouver in recent months compared to stronger levels last year. By way of demonstrating the impact of compositional changes on the average calculation, netting Vancouver out of the national average price calculation yields a 3.2 per cent year-over-year increase.
The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose 5.1 per cent from May to June 2012. This represents a slight deceleration from the 5.2 per cent gain reported in May.
The year-over-year increase was again highest in Greater Toronto (7.9%), followed by Calgary (5.6%), Greater Montreal (2.7%), the Fraser Valley (2.6%), and Greater Vancouver (1.7%).
Among Benchmark housing types tracked by the index, two-storey single family homes continued to post the strongest year-over-year growth in June (6.6%). Gains for one-storey single family homes (6.0%) also surpassed the rise in the overall index, while townhouses and apartments saw more modest gains (3.1% and 2.7% respectively).
Year-over-year-gains have moderated in all Benchmark housing categories except one-storey single family homes. Driven by increases in Greater Toronto and Calgary, prices in this category rose at the fastest pace in nearly two years in June.
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 neighborhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas.
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 104,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations.
Further information can be found at http://crea.ca/statistics
Source: Canadian Real Estate
Association.
For more information, please contact:
Media only:
Pierre Leduc
Media Relations
Tel.: 613-237-7111 or 613-884-1460
E-mail: pleduc@crea.ca
All other requests:
Janet Lemoine
MLS® Statistics Coordinator
E-mail: jlemoine@crea.ca
For more information, please contact:
Media only:
Pierre Leduc
Media Relations
Tel.: 613-237-7111 or 613-884-1460
E-mail: pleduc@crea.ca
All other requests:
Janet Lemoine
MLS® Statistics Coordinator
E-mail: jlemoine@crea.ca
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