Canada Experiences A Decline In Home Sales

In a report made by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), it has been revealed that the sales of homes in Canada has seen a month long decline starting from the month of May and into the month of June.

CREA published the report earlier today, wherein it states that sales in Canadian homes have dropped 0.9% from May to June. During this monthly interval (May to June), it is reported that drops in home sales have been recorded in almost half of Canada’s markets, including Toronto and Vancouver.

The drop in sales seems to be the result of rising house prices. The same monthly report made from May to June of last year, has shown a 13.6% increase in the housing price index in comparison to this year’s report made from the same monthly timeline. It can also be gathered from a statement made by CREA’s chief economist Gregory Klump that the rise in prices has a lot to do with houses still being in high demand despite only limited supply being available.

Mr Klump has stated that “In keeping with the law of supply and demand, exceptionally low inventory combined with high demand continues to translate into strong price growth in these housing markets, where year-over-year price gains have been running in double-digit territory since late last year”.

Despite the drop in the overall monthly house sales numbers, a report made annually however, depicts a rather contrasting story. The general number of home sales made in Canada has actually seen an increase from June 2015 through to June 2016. Sales have been reported to having increased by 5.2% from the previous year.

This increase is eminent based on the fact that most Canadian markets have seen a yearly increase in overall sales. Markets such as Ontario have seen home sales increase 6.5% and British Columbia’s sales have increased 14.3% over the past year. Other remaining provinces like Quebec’s sales have increased 2.3%, New Brunswick 3.2%, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I) 12.5% and NewfoundLand and Labrador 28.6% over the past year.

The only provinces that were not fortunate enough to end the yearly report with a rise in the percentage of house sales were Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta’s sales are revealed to have dropped 9.2% and Saskatchewan’s fell by 10.7% from June of last year.