TORONTO- The residential housing market has vastly improved Canada's real estate market is showing signs of improvement after slowing noticeably over the summer months, but not near the highs of late 2009, level in 11 of the country's 19 largest real estate markets.
The markets are expected to record softer sales activity in the final quarter of the year, in comparison to the same period in 2009," says the report from Re/Max, On average, prices have been moving lower since peaking earlier in the spring, but over a longer time frame, prices are up across the board, with five areas reporting double-digit gains since the start of the year.
Canada’s residential real estate markets are set to return to more normal levels of activity, according to Tuesday report by Re/Max.
Prices are up in all cities, with Vancouver, St. John’s, Sudbury, Winnipeg and the Toronto area all experiencing double-digit jumps. The strongest area of activity reported a surge of 20 per cent or more was in sales of high-end homes going through the roof, "If anything demonstrates the underlying health of the national housing picture, it’s the surge in sales of luxury properties this year," said Michael Polzler, Re/Max's executive vice-president for Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
"We know from experience that this segment of the market is usually the first to show pressure cracks when a market is softening and that have certainly not been the case this year, even during the summer slowdown." where 68 per cent of markets saw upscale home sales climb in excess of 40 per cent, while 21 per cent boasted triple-digit gains. Most of the 19 major centers studied are experiencing balanced market conditions, but St. John's, Kelowna and Calgary now sit in firmly buyer friendly markets.
And despite the threat of higher interest rates, tighter lending policies and the introduction of the harmonized sales tax (HST) in Ontario and British Columbia had only a negligible impact on the market, The Re/Max report found there hasn't been a big influx of listings, while demand has normalized after a very hot period in late 2009 and early this year.
Re/Max said it anticipates fewer sales than in the surprisingly strong fourth quarter of 2009 where prices are expected to hold up. Looking at the big picture however, the market remains healthy.
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