Justin da Rosa
REP
Home sales cooled in May, following a record-breaking April, but are still up year-over-year.
“National sales activity is still strong, even after coming off the record levels of the past couple of months,” CREA President Cliff Iverson said. “But, there are housing markets where sales continue to reflect a cautious mood among homebuyers and uncertainty about the local economy.”
National home sales fell 2.8% month-over-month; however, sales were up year-over-year by 9.6%.
The MLS Home Price Index increased 12.5% year-over-year in May.
“Many of the housing markets in BC and Ontario that led the monthly decline in national sales are also places where months of inventory have fallen to all-time lows,” Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said. “This suggests a lack of supply may be starting to rein in sales amid a continuation of strong housing demand.”
The average home price for homes sold in May was $509,460, up 13.2% year-over-year. CREA credits the booming Toronto and Vancouver markets for bolstering that number.
Sales in the Greater Vancouver area were up 18.5% year-over-year and the average price jumped 16.5% to $1,055,495.
In Toronto, meanwhile, sales were up 9.9% year-over-year. The average price in May jumped 15.7% to $751,908.
“Even then, this reflects a tug of war between strong average price gains in housing markets around the GTA and in British Columbia versus flat or declining average prices elsewhere in Canada,” CREA said in a release. “The average price for Canada net of sales in British Columbia and Ontario in May 2016 was down 0.7 percent year-over-year to $310,007.”
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