Canadian home sales decline 12% over past year

About 12 per cent fewer Canadian houses were sold in November compared to the
same month a year ago, and prices were off by just under one per cent, according
to figures released today.


The Canadian Real Estate Association said sales were lower in three-quarters
of all local housing markets, including most large Canadian cities. Calgary was
the exception to that trend, with a 10.6 per cent annual increase in sales
activity.


"National sales activity lacks the momentum it had a year ago," CREA chief
economist Gregory Klump said.


 
Click below to see the slow decline from 1990 through 2011

Sales have now fallen in three of the past four months. In July, Ottawa moved
to tighten the rules that govern the mortgage industry, and that has served to
cool the housing market, CREA says.


"Interest rates have remained low and the economic backdrop has remained
supportive for housing activity, so that should leave little doubt that recent
changes to mortgage regulations are responsible for having cooled activity,"
Klump said.


The average price of a Canadian home sold last month was $356,687, a 0.8 per
cent decline over a year ago.


The average price metric continues to be impacted by what CREA calls,
"compositional factors," namely less sales in the formerly red hot real estate
markets of Toronto and Vancouver.

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