National home sales activity has slowed down on a month-over-month basis, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. More specifically:
- Home sales were down 1.7% from October to November.
- Actual sales activity was down 11.9% from November 2011.
- Number of newly listed homes was down 0.9% from October to November.
- MLS® HPI (Home Price Index) were up 3.5% in November, marking its smallest gain since May 2011.
Follow the link to see CREA’s full press release.
“National sales activity lacks the momentum it had a year ago,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “Interest rates have remained low and the economic backdrop has remained supportive for housing activity, so that should leave little doubt that recent changes to mortgage regulations are responsible for having cooled activity.”
In the interview with the Globe and Mail, Minister Flaherty responded that he believed that the steps taken to tighten the mortgage rules had some effect. “The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions tightened guidelines as well. And I think there’s an increasing awareness among the Canadian public that excessive debt is unwise in a time of historically low interest rates,” he added.
In Ontario, a number of unit sales declined by 13 per cent on year-over-year basis from 15,106 units in November 2011 to 13,137 in 2012. The new listings saw a slight drop of 1.1 percent. The average home price has experienced an increase of 0.9 per cent (from 373,572 to $376,806) on a year-to-year basis, while nationally, it declined by 0.8 per cent from November 2011.
The national average price continues to be influenced by compositional factors, most notably fewer sales in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto. Excluding these two markets would yield a year-over-year increase of 3.2 per cent.
“As always, all real estate is local,” said CREA’s President Wayne Moen “So buyers and sellers should talk to their REALTOR® to understand how the housing market is shaping up where they live or might like to.”
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