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CategoryReal Estate Trends

Posted Real Estate Trends

Record number of listings in March

New listings in Canada reached 97,663 in March 2010… the highest number ever according to a report on CBC.ca. Inventory sits at 4.4 months….or in other words, it will take you an average of 4.4 months to sell your home….

That might be correct for some parts of Canada but it’s certainly not the case in major centres as multiple offers and above asking sale prices are still common place in Toronto…  The last 5 months has seen a very healthy real estate market… The new Mortgage Rules will take some homebuyers out of the market.

We couldn’t keep going at this pace.. No one wants to see a runaway market… that’s always a recipe for a hard landing… To me, this report is good news….a healthy real estate market means the government’s stimulus package and incentives had the desired effect… Good news is good news….

Posted Real Estate Trends

MLS changes not enough according to Competition Bureau

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) members voted for some changes in it’s annual meeting in Ottawa.   The changes were brought in after the Competition Bureau challenged CREA that rules to list on the MLS were too restrictive…..

There were 2 major changes:

-a property can be listed on MLS for a flat fee.

-the agent must now pass along the seller’s phone to the prospective buyer, if the seller chooses.

But the Competition Bureau said these changes didn’t go far enough… click here to read more as reported on CTV.ca.

We’ll be following this story closely… this appears to be a first step in making the MLS more public….stay tuned.

Posted Real Estate Trends

CMHC Chief Economist forecasts a rebound in 2010

Good news release ….CMHC’s Chief Economist, Bob Dugan, says new housing starts for 2010 will be around 172,250…. and 175,150 in 2011…. this is much higher than 2009’s 140,081….

The strong resale market is not expected to continue it’s record setting pace…. Existing home sales are forecast to total 486,700 in 2010 and taper off to 469,950 in 2011. But this is a good thing.. we really don’t want to see a red hot market as this always leads to a sharp decline…. slow and steady.. that’s always a better trend.

Posted Real Estate Trends

January Home prices up…sales down…really?

January stats are in… According to a report in CBC News, the average price of a home sold in Canada on MLS was $328,537.   This is up by 19.6% from January 2009.  But sales seemed to taper off from December’s record high by declining 2.8%.    The supply of homes for sale is also down around 18% with 170,000 homes listed for sale on MLS.

It’s amazing how statistics can be tossed around and can be manipulated or misunderstood…  If you look deeper, you will see that 2009 started off very rough for house sales as the U.S. Mortgage crisis was just starting to take it’s effect… but then as we approached May and June, interest rates dropped and house sales started to increase….  A sort of pent-up demand was being fulfilled.

Watch for a traditional Spring market with good resale figures as buyers take action to benefit from record low interest rates and before the new HST comes in effect this summer.