Home Sales Drop In The Month Of September

The Canadian Real Estate Association said Thursday that home sales in September through its Multiple Listing Service were down 2.1 per cent compared with August.

A drop of 2.1% was recorded with the association saying sales through its Multiple Listing Service were down in more than half of all local markets, led by lower sales in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

Canadian home prices rose 0.6 percent in September from August, the ninth straight monthly increase, and were up a hefty 5.6 percent from a year earlier, the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed on Thursday.

Average existing home price growth cooled to 6.1% year-over-year in September, following 6-months of near-9% growth.

The national average sale price rose 6.1% on a year-over-year basis in September; excluding Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, it increased by 2.9%.

“Overall, September’s housing markets stats are consistent with a continued hot housing market – it just doesn’t appear to be getting any hotter”.

Actual sales for September, not seasonally adjusted, edged up 0.7 percent from a year earlier.

As has been the case for a while, activity in Toronto and Vancouver is skewing the average higher, CREA said.

National home sales declined by 2.1% from August to September. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on the MLS quality adjusted home price index. He said the Vancouver and Toronto regions “rank among the tightest urban housing markets in the country due to a shortage of inventory and supply of land on which to build, which is why prices there continue to grow strongly”. Calgary posted the largest annual decline in activity. In September, sales plunged by 34.2 per cent to 1,866 transactions.

Canada’s housing market has been booming since 2009, driven by historically low interest rates and tight supply in the two largest markets, Toronto and Vancouver. The acceleration in the quality adjusted home price index was broad based across types of homes.

For the second consecutive month, prices in Calgary were flat on a year-over-year basis.

Prices are likely to come down by Friday morning thanks to wholesale gasoline dropping about six cents a litre. “Looking forward, a favourable economic backdrop and balanced market conditions will continue to support a moderate pace of housing activity in most markets across Canada.”, she said.

Two-storey single family homes posted the biggest year-over-year price gains at 9.07%, followed by one-storey single family homes at 6.48%, townhouse/row units at 4.4% and apartments at 4.22%. Single-family homes continued to lead the charge with a 9.0% year-over-year gain in September.

MLS® Systems are co-operative marketing systems used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.