Ottawa’s tighter mortgage rules, with a new harmonized sales tax in Ontario and impending rate increases should slow the Canadian housing market in the second half of the year, taking away any fears of a housing bubble notes analysts.
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported Wednesday that resale home sales across Canada dropped 2.8% in January from the near record levels that were reported in December, which suggests that the market may already be cooling.
There were 46,394 existing homes sales last month, compared with 48,144 in the prior month; all figures are seasonally adjusted.
The results from January suggest that the national resale market may already be past the recent peak, however we will need several months of similar data before there is no more talk of a Canadians housing bubble.
Before this happens, analysts expect housing activity will remain heated in the coming months, especially since buyers are expected to rush to purchase before new mortgage requirements come into effect April 19th.
CREA noted that that the average residential price went up 19.6% to $353,139.
A positive for buyers is that new listings totals rose slightly in January by three tenths of 1% on a month over month basis as houses were put up for sale, making it the highest level since November 2008.
Jeff Markewich
Broker of Record with InfoMarket Group GMAC Real Estate
www.imgrealestate.ca
