Tara Perkins – The Globe and Mail

There are early indications that September appears to have been another strong month for Canadian home sales.

That is based on data that some local real estate boards have released in recent days about how their housing markets fared last month. The number of existing homes that changed hands in Toronto was up 10.9% from a year earlier, in Calgary it was up almost 12%, and in Vancouver 17.7%. And that’s in comparison to a reasonably strong month: sales in September, 2013, were slightly above the 10-year average for that month.

A comprehensive picture won’t be available until the Canadian Real Estate Board, which represents realtors, compiles all of the local statistics and releases national September data on Oct. 15. Many cities have not released their numbers publicly yet, and the ones that have tend to be in some of the country’s stronger housing markets. Quebec and the Atlantic region, where more markets are struggling, are not represented below.

But the strength of Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver’s housing markets tends to pull up the national averages, and so the numbers here suggest that the national figures will point to a market that still has momentum.

Comment: And yet Edmonton and Victoria, not part of the “big 3”, showed sales and prices rising. Plus, Quebec and the Atlantic region have their own issues which will continue to keep their economies and housing markets down.

CALGARY

– Sales were up almost 12% in September from a year ago. The local real estate board says the unexpected strength came from a surge in condo and townhouse sales.

– Condo sales so far this year are 21% higher than during the same period last year, while the number of sales of detached homes has risen by just 7%. Affordability is driving the shift. Two years ago, 44% of the detached houses that sold from January through to the end of September went for less than $400,000, according to the real estate board. So far this year only one quarter of the houses have sold for less than that.

– The average price of a detached house in the city was $567,653 in September, up 10.81% from a year earlier. The average price of a condo was $326,264, up 9.21%. For townhouses it was $352,813, up 4.21%.

– The average length of time it takes to sell a home continues to tick downwards. Year-to-date the average number of days a home is on the market before it sells (for all types of homes) is 34, down from 42 in the same period last year.

EDMONTON

– Sales were up 9.19% from a year earlier.

– The average selling price of a detached home was $435,584, up 6.92%, and the median price of a detached home was $405,000, up 6.91%. The average price of a condo was $254,494, up 4.85%, and the median price was $232,000, up 2.65%.

– The average selling price of all types of properties was $372,673, up 6.37%.

– The average number of days that homes were on the market before selling was 49, the same as in August but down from 54 days a year ago. The sales-to-listings ratio was 72%, up from 67% in August.

TORONTO

– Sales were up 10.9% from a year earlier. So far this year sales in the city are 6.9% higher than during the same period last year.

– The average selling price was $573,676, up 7.7% from a year earlier. The average selling price year-to-date is $563,813, up 8.5% from last year.

– “If the current pace of sales growth remains in place, we could be flirting with a new record for residential sales reported by (Toronto Real Estate Board) members this year,” TREB’s director of market analysis, Jason Mercer, stated in a press release.

– The average selling price of detached homes in the downtown area covered by the 416 area code was $951,792, up 11.5% from a year earlier. For condos in the same area it was $395,505, up 9.2%.

VANCOUVER

– Sales were up 17.7% from a year earlier, and 5.4% from the prior month. September’s sales level was 16.1% above the 10-year average for that month, making it the third-highest September in that period.

– The benchmark price of all types of properties in Metro Vancouver was $633,500, up 5.3% from a year earlier. For detached homes it was $990,300, up 7.3%, townhomes were $477,700, up 4.2%, and apartments or condos were $378,700, up 3.3%. Similar to the Toronto market, detached home prices are rising more quickly due to a shortage of land to build new ones on.

– Sales of detached homes were up 24.1%, sales of apartments or condos were up 16.7%, and sales of attached properties were up 5%.

– “September was an active period for our housing market when we compare it against typical activity for the month,” Ray Harris, the president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, stated in a press release.

VICTORIA

– Sales were up 16% from a year ago. “We haven’t seen sales like this in September since 2009,” Victoria Real Estate Board president Tim Ayres stated in a press release.

– The local real estate board surmises that buyers and sellers are feeling more comfortable about doing deals because prices are more stable and predictable now.

– The benchmark price of a house (the benchmark seeks to be a more apples-to-apples gauge than the average price) in central Victoria was $556,200, up from $550,900 a year earlier. For the entire Greater Victoria area it was $492,200, up from $484,800. The benchmark price of a condo in the Greater area was $287,100, up from $283,900. For a townhouse it was $401,500, up from $400,000.

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information – 416-388-1960

Laurin Jeffrey is a Toronto real estate agent with Century 21 Regal Realty.
He did not write these articles, he just reproduces them here for people who
are interested in Toronto real estate. He does not work for any builders.
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