Data was just released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) for Canadian home sales and pricing for 2014 and the real estate market in Canada has been prospering. Home sales across the country show a 7.1% increase from last year. The data also showed that the resale market continues to be strong with the strongest activity for the month of October since 2009.
According to Gregory Klump, CREA chief economist, while the strength of national sales activity is far from being a Canada-wide phenomenon, it extends beyond Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
October sales were up from last year in close to 70% of all local markets. Greater Vancouver saw the greatest increase with Fraser Valley, Victoria, Calgary, and Greater Toronto following. Combined sales in these 5 markets account for almost 40% of national sales activity.
The home price index increased by 5.51% in October from last year. Price gains have been steady between 5-5.5% since the start of the year.
Although gains have been seen in the top 5 markets, prices in the Saskatoon real estate market were flat as were Ottawa, Montreal, Moncton and Regina actually saw a decrease of 3.4%.
The national home price average in October was $419,699 showing a 7.1% increase from sales last year. If you exclude Toronto and Vancouver’s markets from the data, the adjusted national average is $330,596 with an increase of 5.4%. Compared to Saskatoon‘s current average at $362,037.
If you are interested in investing in the real estate market or have questions about our current local market, please contact me today and I’d be more than happy to discuss the market in detail.