Canadian Real Estate Sales Are Up Over 15%
Canadian real estate sales are up significantly, both on the month and from last year. CREA reported 41,628 seasonally adjusted sales in June, up 63.0% from a month before. There were 54,928 unadjusted sales in June, up 15.2% from the same month last year. Anyway you cut this number, it's a significant bump in sales.
Quebec And BC Real Estate See Biggest Gains
The biggest gains were in Quebec and BC, with the latter an easy beat since they were coming off multi-year lows. Quebec City saw the biggest growth with 924 sales in June, up 46.9% from the same month last year. Fraser Valley followed with 1,619 sales, up 30.1% from last year. Vancouver came in third with 2,497 sales, up 19.0% from a year before. Both Fraser Valley and Vancouver were coming off of unusually slow sales volumes, so the big pop isn't surprising. Quebec City on the other hand, has beat its sales numbers for at least three years in a row.
Southern Ontario Real Estate Sees Biggest Drop In Canada
The biggest decline in sales volumes weren't all that big, but they were all seen in Southern Ontario. Kitchener led with 642 sales in June, down 1.8% from the same month last year. Toronto matched with 8,701 sales, also down 1.8% from last year. Ottawa came in third with 2,083 sales, down 1.2% from last year. Once again, not big – but delayed buyers helped to push that number to where it is.
While Canadian housing starts have gained momentum and are on pace for more than 200,000 this year, CIBC World Markets managing director and deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal expects things to slow down in the final quarter.