Photo: Grand Survivor/Flickr
The latest stats from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) point to a spike in sale prices, though the country is seeing a slowdown in sales compared to some of the peaks reached in 2013.
The country saw an increase in sales with actual activity up by 4.9 per cent compared to March 2013. Month-to-month, Canada saw a 1 per cent rise is sales from February. Though this follows the 0.6 per cent rise measured between January and February, activity still remains closer to the low reached in January 2014 than the recent peak in August 2013.
The average sale price for a Canadian home rose to $401,419 in March, a six per cent increase from the same time last year. Even CREA’s Aggregate Composite MLS House Price Index saw a spike: the index rose 5.19 per cent on a year-over-year basis in March 2014.
“There’s little doubt that winter’s icy grip prompted many potential home buyers to put off house hunting,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist, in the news release.
“That said, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in April because while overall sales improved in March, there was little evidence of a flood of pent-up demand being released.”
Here’s how the prices and sales activity breaks down:
Prices
- Year-over-year, price growth was led by two-storey single family homes which measured a 5.97 per cent increase, closely followed by one-storey single family homes (5.47 per cent), townhouse/row units (4.09 per cent) and apartment units (3.91 per cent).
- For the House Price Index, the biggest gains were seen in Calgary, which measured a 9.48 per cent jump, year-over-year, followed by the GTA’s 7.37 per cent spike, and Greater Vancouver’s 3.73 per cent rise, its fifth consecutive year-over-year increase.
Sales
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 4.9 per cent above the sales seen in March 2013.
- Actual sales were up year-over-year in 60 per cent of local markets with Greater Vancouver, Calgary, and Greater Toronto seeing the biggest increases in activity.
- Despite the boost in sales compared to 2013, actual activity in March was 8.2 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of March.
- Similarly, first quarter sales were up 2.8 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2013, but 7.5 per cent below the 10-year average for the first quarter period.
For more details check out the tables below:
