Spring market heats up

Brokers in 80 per cent of Canada's markets likely experienced a recent surge in business as sales continued to heat up with the weather.

The spring housing market heated up with the weather in May as national home sales jumped 5.9 per cent from April to May of this year.

“The monthly increase in May activity was widespread among local housing markets, with some 80 per cent of them reporting stronger sales compared to April,” CREA President Beth Crosbie said in an official release. “Over the past 25 years, that widespread a monthly sales increase has been recorded only a handful of times. Even so, the improvement varied by location.”

Half of the provinces recorded year-over-year sales activity growth. Overall, Canada saw a 4.8 per cent year-over-year sales jump, which was bolstered by a 169.2 per cent spike in Northwest Territories.

British Columbia (13.9 per cent), Alberta (13.2 per cent), Saskatchewan (5.2 per cent), Manitoba (2.1 per cent), and Ontario (4.9 per cent) were the other provinces to record positive year-over-year sales growth.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick recorded the most negative year-over-year sales figures with a drop of 19 per cent.

“In markets where supply had become tight, we expected sales to improve in tandem with listings,” Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist said. “Had it not been for such a brutal winter that delayed the launch of the spring market, the improvement in new listings and sales would likely have been more spread out over the past few months.”

As for home prices the national average price rose 7.1 per cent year-over-year, led by Northwest Territories (23.7 per cent). 10 of the 12 provinces saw positive price increases with only Nova Scotia (-6.2 per cent) and Yukon (-8.5 per cent) in the red.