Canadian Home Sales are Up!

There’s good news for both home sellers and home buyers after The Canadian Real Estate Association released statistics showing just how many Canadian homes are starting to sell. While the stats don’t show an increase throughout the entire country, there is enough of an upswing right now to make any Canadian looking to take on a mortgage, or get rid of one, finally feel good about it again!
Compared to last July, when there was a huge drop in the real estate market throughout the entire country, the skyrocketing numbers for July 2011 are definitely promising. In addition to that, new listings on MLS for the first six months of the year have also truly reflected the national average for the past decade, showing that while we may have been down for a little while, we were never really out; and we’re definitely getting back into the game. This is especially true when you compare these markets with some of the biggest markets in the United States, which are still suffering after the recession. And even with a slight dip in June 2011, sales held pretty steady throughout the month of July. Another difference between these two big months in Canadian real estate is the fact that new listings on MLS also moved up 1% in July from where they stood in June.
Many markets benefited from the increase in sales including: Newfoundland and Labrador, Montreal, and Edmonton. Toronto, while not seeing huge changes, did also see a slight increase in home sales from June to July. One of the biggest markets in Canada that actually fell in their sales stats was Vancouver but experts believe that this is due to the high cost of buying a home in this market; they also point to this being the reason that Toronto did not see as much of an increase as several other larger markets in the country.
Gary Morse, president of the Canadian Real Estate Association, says that several factors contribute to the growth in home sales including: an increased confidence on the part of the consumer when it comes to the safety of investing in a home; low interest rates; and the affordability of the homes that are going up for sale. And, that’s also not the only good news that Canadians can expect, as Morse also predicts that the Canadian market is going to show stability, if not a large amount of growth, for many more months to come.