CREA Brings To Attention Real Estate Challenges

The first report for this year has been disclosed by the Canadian Real Estate Association, which pinpoints the problems homebuyers are assured to face or tackle with this year. President of CREA, Cliff Iverson commented; “Canadian homebuyers face some challenges this year, including new mortgage rules that make it harder to qualify for a mortgage and regulatory changes that will push up mortgage financing costs. It will take some time to gauge the extent to which these challenges will weigh on home buyers in different housing markets across Canada.”

From December’s total to January, the home sales figure went down by 1.3 per cent. Half of all the local markets experienced a decrease in sales activity, GTA taking the lead, followed by Greater Vancouver and Montreal markets. The issue of inventory is still present. Gregory Klump, the Chief Economist for CREA said; “The shortage of homes available for sale has become more severe in some cities, particularly in and around Toronto and in parts of BC. Unless sales activity drops dramatically, the outlook for home prices remains strong in places that face a continuing supply shortage.”

In January alone, the number of new homes listed went down by 6.7 per cent, which was recorded for the second month in a row to experience a decline. In the meantime, new listings also decreased in two-thirds of all the markets.

“With the monthly decline in new listings surpassing the decline in sales, the national sales-to-new listings ratio jumped to 67.7% in January compared to 64.0% in December and 60.2% in November. A sales-to-new listings ratio between 40 and 60 is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, with readings below and above this range indicating buyers’ and sellers’ markets respectively,” said CREA is a publication.