Real Estate: Have We Reached the Top?
We’re deep into the spring home buying season, which admittedly started a little earlier thanks to an incredibly mild winter and spring, and apparently lawns have a record number of “for sale” signs on them.
However, to some it seems that we’ve reached the top of the real estate market, with nowhere to go but you-know-where.
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, March saw a 25 per cent increase in properties put on the market (that’s 97,663 properties). Although, demand for real estate is still very strong and sales continue to climb.
Sounds good to me, so what’s the problem? Despite large increases in year-over-years sales, March was the fifth month in a row where the percentage decreased. Sales are already starting to drop in some markets. It sounds contradictory, but it’s just how the numbers even out over the country with some places being hot and some not.
For the rest of the spring, sales are expected to remain strong as homebuyers rush out to purchase real estate, particularly with an increase in the amount of properties on the market.
Of course, with consumers attempting to beat the clock on all of the new changes coming to the real estate world – new mortgage lending rules (now in effect), higher interest rates (already in progress), and the HST in British Columbia and Ontario – prices and sales are anticipated to decline in the second half of 2010.
But don’t worry, industry experts don’t think that we’re in for a U.S.-style housing crash. We’re going to do it the Canadian way: quietly. Expect sales and prices to shrink, not sink.
Until all of the pieces fall into place later this year, there will still be a lot of people out there trying to qualify for mortgages and looking to find their perfect house. At this point, there’s no reason to think that the real estate market is doomed.
