Canadian Housing Market Stabilizes Prices Stop Falling and Sales Volume Increases

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The Canadian housing market has shown signs of stabilization, as the primary measure of Canadian house prices has stopped falling for the first time in over a year. However, monthly declines are still visible in many markets across the country, and the national average seems to be heavily supported by Toronto, Canada’s largest real estate market. Seasonal price growth has been exceptionally strong heading into the spring market, with the house price index up 1.6 per cent month-over-month. This seasonality, combined with the Greater Toronto's ability to skew the national data set, points to a year where we’ll likely see volatility in house prices. Another metric that finally seems to be breaking its negative trend is sales volume, or the number of homes sold. Home sales increased by 1.4 per cent from last month, the largest gain seen since these declines in volume started. The industry is hopeful that this trend is toward the 10-year monthly moving average of home sales. However, volume is still down 34.4 per cent from last year’s lofty numbers. The real estate industry is likely breathing a sigh of relief after many months of record-low volume, which means reduced income from sales commissions. Prices and sales volume are two significant factors for the real estate market, and it remains to be seen how they will evolve in the coming months.

Read the full article on: REAL ESTATE MAGAZINE