News: The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)
Canadian home sales stable in May
Highlights:
• Sales activity held steady from April to May, but posted the first
year-over-year gain in over a year due to falling demand in May 2010.
• Year-to-date sales are in line with the ten-year average.
• New listings also remained stable from April to May.
• National housing market remains firmly entrenched in balanced territory.
• National average price is still being skewed upward by historically high
sales activity in certain
neighbourhoods.
Seasonally adjusted national home sales activityedged down by
less than one per cent in May 2011 compared to the previous month. Among major
markets were activity declines in Vancouver and
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 2.7 per cent above levels reported last May. This was the first year-over-year increase in more than a year, reflecting falling sales activity in May 2010. Activityfell sharply last year between April and July, with May marking the mid-point of that slide. Although activity has been more stable this year, last year’s sales volatility is expected to continue to affect yearover-year comparisons in the months ahead.
A total of 196,749 homes have traded hands via Canadian MLS® Systems so far this year. This is in line with the ten-year average for year-to-date activity in May.
“The Canadian housing market has seen some big ups and downs in recent years, making national sales activity so far this year look like something of a Goldilocks story by comparison – not too hot, not too cold,” said Gary Morse, CREA’s President. “Since local housing market trends often differ from national trends, buyers and sellers should consult their local REALTOR® to understand how the housing market is shaping up where they live.”
Seasonally adjusted new residential listings were little changed
from April to May, edging up one tenth of a percentage point. The number of
newly listed homes fell in
With sales and new listings holding steady on a national basis in May, the resale housing market remained firmly planted in balanced territory. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 52.1 per cent in May, little changed from 52.5 per cent in April.
Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 and 60 per
cent, housing markets were balanced in 62 of 101 real estate boards in
The seasonally adjusted number of months of inventory stood at 6.1 months at the end of May on a national basis. This is little changed compared to the six months of inventory at the end of April 2011. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand.
The national average price for homes sold in May 2011 was $376,817, up 8.6 per cent from the same month last year.
A number of compositional factors skewed the national average
price upward in May. These factors include historically high sales activity in
selected pricey
“Changes in the national average home price reflect variations in home sales activity across and within local markets,” said Klump. “Failure to recognize changes in the mix of sales activity can lead to misinterpretation of average price fluctuations. It can also give rise to faulty predictions of broadly based home price deflation by way of price correction.”
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national MLS® sales information from the previous month.
CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighbourhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.
MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of
Further information can be found athttp://www.crea.ca/public/news_stats/media.htm.
Your
DavidValente.com
604-377-6015