Canadian real estate boom over, statistics indicate
A recently built home sits ready for sale.(Seth Perlman/Associated Press)
The real estate market has run out of steam, a report from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) suggests.
"Canadian housing market activity continued to slide in May, confirming that the six-year housing boom has, indeed, fizzled, and the poor winter results were not just weather- and holiday-related," Bank of Montreal economic analyst Robert Kavcic said in a commentary.
He based his comment on the CREA monthly report on 25 major markets, released Friday, which shows that volumes and prices are slowing or falling compared to May 2007.
Unit sales fell 16.9 per cent in May to 35,040.Total dollar volume fell 16 per cent to $11.8 billion.Average housing prices in May were up only 1.1 per cent, the smallest year-over-year increase in more than seven years."Rising food, fuel and home prices are denting consumer confidence," CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said in a news release.
But he noted there were more listings in May than ever, a record 54,029, up 2.2 per cent from April.
The drop in seasonally adjusted sales was driven by drops in Vancouver, Regina and Saskatoon, offsetting increases in Toronto, Ottawa and London-St. Thomas.
The average price of a May sale, $337,071, ranged from a high of $624,639 in Vancouver to a low of $139,936 in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Over the past year, the biggest percentage increase was in Regina — up 44.9 per cent to $235,458 — while the biggest drop was in Windsor-Essex, Ont., down 5.5 per cent to $159,682.
Prices fell by less than five per cent in Calgary and Edmonton and rose substantially in Saskatoon, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saint John, N.B.
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