Home sales on MLS Systems across Canada in February increased 5.9 percent from January and a whopping 26.9 percent over February 2019, says the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) in its monthly report.
The month-over-month sales increase was one of the largest month-over-month gains in the past decade, with increases evident in about 60 percent of the markets measured by CREA, led by a 15 percent rise in the Greater Toronto Area.
The large year-over-year increase was partially a result of sales last February being among the lowest in a decade, with sales higher in about 80 percent of all local markets, including all large urban markets.
“Following a quieter than normal December/January period, February saw a burst of new listings in some of Canada’s most supply-starved markets, so it was not a surprise that sales were up alongside that increase in new supply,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist. “There is some question about how much pent-up demand remains in parts of the country where listings have been low for some time now.”
“Home prices are accelerating in markets where listings are in increasingly short supply, specifically in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, which together account for about two-thirds of national sales activity,” said Jason Stephen, president of CREA. “The number of newly listed homes jumped 7.3 percent in February compared to January, more than erasing the declines of late last year. New supply gains were posted in a number of large markets, including the Fraser Valley, Calgary, Edmonton, the GTA, Hamilton-Burlington, Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor-Essex, Ottawa and Montreal.”
Looking at the big Prairie markets, home price trends have ticked downwards in Calgary and Edmonton to start 2020, but have generally been stable since the beginning of last year. Prices in Saskatoon have also been stable over the last year, while those in Regina have continued to trend lower. Prices in Winnipeg have been on a slow upward trend since the beginning of 2019.
Here are key statistics for Calgary from the CREA report, comparing February to February and year to date (YTD)
Feb. 2020 | Feb. 2019 | YTD 2020 | YTD 2019 | |
Dollar value* | 665.1 | 560.7 | $1,155.5 | 1,000.5 |
Sales | 1,521 | 1,269 | 2,648 | 2,278 |
New Listings | 3,315 | 2,870 | 6,349 | 6,158 |
Average price | $437,278 | $441,823 | $436,372 | $439,186 |
SNLR+ | 53.3 | 45.7 | 41.7 | 37.0 |
*In millions
+ sales to new listings ratio
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020