Canada’s housing market finishes 2013 on solid footing

BNN (Business News Network) reports that Canada’s housing market appears to have ended 2013 on a relatively strong note, with a number of major cities now reporting year-over-year sales gains for December and substantial increases in average selling prices.

The market, which was in the midst of a deep and lengthy sales slump at the outset of 2013, surprised economists during the latter half of the year with the strength of its rebound. A few major cities have now released last month’s data, and the figures point to solid sales and price gains. But the full picture won’t be known until the Canadian Real Estate Association discloses the national numbers later this month. Smaller cities and towns have not seen the same sales momentum as the country’s largest cities of late.

Toronto’s real estate board said that sales of existing homes in and around the city last month were almost 14-per-cent higher than a year earlier. The average price of homes that sold over the Multiple Listing Service during the month was $520,398, up by 8.9 per cent from the average selling price in December 2012.

The Calgary area saw an 8-per-cent year-over-year increase in sales last month. The benchmark price of a single family home was $472,200, up 8.6 per cent from a year earlier.

Toronto’s sales for all of 2013 came in about 2-percent higher than 2012.

“After a slow start to the year, sales growth accelerated to a brisk pace in the second half of 2013, Dianne Usher, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, stated. “Despite the inclement weather in December, we finished the year with a respectable gain in transactions compared to 2012.”

Click here to read the full report. (Source: BNN, written by Tara Perkins)

To learn more about local market conditions, or insight into prices for real estate within Durham Region, including Whitby or Brooklin real estate, please contact me and/or visit my website.

Randy Miller
Sales Representative
Re/Max Rouge River Realty Ltd., Brokerage
905-668-1800 or 905-427-1400
randy@randymiller.ca
www.randymiller.ca