Housing Market In Quebec Strength Stems From Montreal’s Performance

A public notice was made by the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards (QFREB) that it is making more revisions to its predictions for this year. This is due to the massive performance of Montreal together with a strong availability of jobs, improved consumer confidence and increase in migration. For this year, the Federation is presently projecting a year-over-year increase of 2 per cent of sales in the real estate market. This would be the best sale for the province since 2010. The QFREB expected a fall of 7 per cent in sales for this year in January, 2016.

The price estimate by the QFREB was also attuned, with the average price of a single-family homes expecting to increase by 3 per cent over the year, up to $242,000 throughout the province. From noticeable strength in the initial part of the year, the trend stems “largely attributed to the Montréal area, which had the lion’s share of the jobs that were created since the start of 2016.”

The Federation gave fine points saying; “The QFREB anticipates 41,500 transactions to be concluded in the Montréal CMA in 2017, a 4% increase compared to 2016. This would make it the best year in terms of sales since 2010.

It is imperative to know that market conditions for single-family homes have recently started to favour sellers once again. This will fast-track price growth from 2% last year to 6% this year. The average price of single-family homes is therefore projected to reach $312,500 across the CMA. As for condominiums, demand is currently constant and market conditions are in the process of rebalancing. The QFREB expects that half of all condominium sales in 2017 will be at a price that is higher than $247,000, up 3% from the median price of 2016.” 

J C Loum