MLS Listings, News & Statistics
The Kamloops and District Real Estate Association has released it’s latest statistics for July 2012. Click on the image to enlarge.
Kamloops Real Estate Comparative Analysis by Property Type July 2012
Kamloops Real Estate MLS Activity July 2012 Statistics
Kamloops Real Estate Sales By Subarea July 2012
OTTAWA – November 15th, 2010 – National resale housing activity rose for the third consecutive month in October 2010, according to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
Seasonally adjusted national home sales activity via the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) Systems of Canadian real estate Boards climbed 4.6 per cent in October 2010. The monthly rise in activity builds on similar increases in August and September. As a result, activity now stands 13.3 per cent above July levels, when it reached this year’s low point. Three-quarters of local markets posted monthly increases in seasonally adjusted activity in October, led by Toronto and Vancouver.
As further evidence that the market is returning to normal, sales activity in October stood halfway between the recessionary low reached in December 2008, and the record level activity posted in December 2009.
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) national sales activity in October 2010 was 21.6 per below levels for October 2009, when activity set a new record for the month.
National sales activity rebounded last year without a single monthly decline and hit record levels in the second half of 2009. As a result, large declines in activity compared to year-ago levels are masking recent monthly gains in national sales activity. Record level activity late last year is expected to continue stretching year-ago comparisons over the rest of 2010 (Exhibit 1).
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But CMHC predicts sales to slow in 2011.
The Canadian housing resale market was almost five per cent more active in October compared to the previous month, the Canadian Real Estate Association says.
The 4.6 per cent increase in sales on the agency’s Multiple Listing Service follows similar rises in September and August. As a result, activity is 13.3 per cent higher compared to July, the low point for 2010.
“National sales activity is now running almost halfway between the highs and lows posted between late 2008 and late 2009,” CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said. “This suggests that the Canadian housing market may be starting to normalize.”
On a yearly basis, sales remained 21.6 per cent below the level of October 2009, the most active October ever for home sales.
The national average price for homes sold in October 2010 was $343,747, up less than a percentage point compared to a year ago. October was the fourth consecutive month in which the average resale price has remained roughly even with year-ago levels, suggesting a balanced market.
“After the wild roller-coaster ride that many housing markets have been on, normal and stable market conditions are something that many buyers and sellers will likely welcome,” Klump said.
There was 6.2 months worth of housing stock inventory at the end of the month, the group said. Inventory describes how long it would take to sell off all the homes available based on current buying patterns. In September, the figure was 6.5 months.
Housing starts to slow
At the same time, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Monday that housing starts are expected to slow in the last three months of 2010 and fall in 2011 from 2010 levels.
The federal housing agency predicted housing starts in the final quarter of 2010 will be in the range of 176,700 to 194,700 in 2010, or approximately 186,200.
In 2011, housing starts will be in the area of 148,000 to 202,300 units, or approximately 174,800 units.
“High employment levels and low mortgage rates will continue to support demand for new homes in 2011,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in a release.
“Nevertheless, housing starts will decrease to levels are more in line with long term [population growth] next year,” he said.
The agency predicted sales of existing homes also will be lower in 2011.
It forecast sales in the range of 423,800 to 455,900 in 2010, or approximately 440,300 units.
The next year, it estimated, sales will be from about 390,600 to 483,700, or about 438,400.
By Raphael Alexander, Vancouver Sun
I wrote in early January about the “bubble” economy in British Columbia, which, despite the Olympics-related building, still resulted in a massive collapse in the construction industry in tandem with the recession. Construction jobs contracted by 11.9 per cent in the province in 2009, as we were one of the last districts in Canada to feel the effects of the global economic meltdown.
Although January construction numbers are up to 198,600 jobs, it is below the 202,100 jobs from a year ago, and a far cry from the 220,800 jobs during the boom.
The good news is that new construction is on the rise in the province, with the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts reaching 186,300 units in January, a 5.8-per-cent increase from December.
That’s much better than the 149,081 housing units to begin 2009, but the construction starts have progressed steadily until now, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. It’s even better than the figure that economists from financial institutions had been predicting.
In cities, housing starts are up 4.4 per cent, and within those numbers the increase of multiple urban starts [like condos] also increased by 5.7 per cent. All of those numbers show a recovery from the recession, with confidence in the housing market improving, and home sales rising again.
But the victory may be short-lived, with experts predicting the bubble will pop when the harmonized sales tax kicks in on July 1.
Home buyers will likely advance their demand for houses before the HST is implemented, meaning fewer purchases in late 2010 and early 2011.
This is forecast by the Canadian Real Estate Association itself, which says that not only the 12-per-cent HST, but also higher interest rates, which must inevitably rise after historically prolonged lows, will push real estate down in 2011.
B.C.’s housing resale market is forecast to jump 19.8 per cent for 2010, with average home prices going up by 4.2 per cent to $485,500. But the bulk of those sales will be before the HST and the Bank of Canada interest rate revisions.
Interest rate increases are likely to further dampen the housing market in 2011, with an expected decline of 7.1 per cent in the number of units sold. B.C.’s market is forecast to see the largest decline of 12.9 per cent to 88,800 units sold in 2011.
Even though the market is expected to fall in 2011, the prices of homes in B.C. are expected to decline only 1.8 per cent, meaning that investors will still be making a profit with the dip. That means there’s no relief for homebuyers who were hoping the astronomical prices of an average home in Vancouver would go down.
The median sale value of a home in Vancouver in 2009 was $540,900, while median household income was $58,200. According to The Demographia International report which calculates home affordability in an index that divides the price of a home by household income, Vancouver is the most expensive city among 272 metropolitan markets in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
The “Median Multiple” gives Vancouver an index of 9.3 in affordability, much higher, for instance, than Kamloops, where the median family income is $67,434 while the price of a home is $257,242, giving a Median Multiple of 3.8.