Canadian home sales continue slide

Home sales fell once again in July, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association

Canadian home sales continue slide
Home sales fell once again in July, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

National home sales fell 2.1% from June to July and 11.9% year-over-year. Home sales are now down 15.3% from the record set in March.  

The average home price, meanwhile, decreased 0.3% year-over-year to $478,696.

Sales were down in nearly two-thirds of all markets, including Calgary, Halifax, Ottawa, and the Greater Toronto Area.

“July marked the smallest monthly decline in Greater Golden Horseshoe home sales since Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan was announced in April,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “This suggests sales may be starting to bottom out amid stabilizing housing market sentiment. Time will tell whether that’s indeed the case once the transitory boost by buyers with pre-approved mortgages fades.”

Newly listed homes dropped 1.8%, led by a decline in the GTA.

“Many other markets in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region have also seen new supply pull back recently after having jumped immediately following the Ontario government’s announcement of its Fair Housing Plan in late April,” CREA said. “New listings were also down in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal and northern British Columbia, with the lattermost region having been hit by wildfires.”

Country-wide, the real estate market is considered balanced, with the sales to new listings ratio sitting at 53.5%.

Based on a comparison of the sales-to-new listings ratio with its long-term average, more than 60% of all local markets are in balanced market territory. In the Greater Golden Horseshoe region, housing markets that recently favoured sellers have become more balanced, with some beginning to tilt toward buyers’ market territory,” CREA said.

“There were 5.2 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of July 2017, the highest level since January 2016. This was up from five months in June and up by more than a full month from where it stood in March.”