Home Prices Up 11% in January as Supply Dwindles: CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released data in January showing that home prices rose 11.5% in January, with the average price rising 11.2%. The overall value of homes sold continued to rise, with the MLS Home Price Index rising 4.7% year-over-year. National home prices are 5.5% higher than where they were in May of 2018 when the market experienced the lowest part of its slump. However, the number of newly-listed homes remained flat in January, leading to a 10-year low for new listings, which caused sales to fall 2.9% month-over-month. Sellers remain firmly in the seat of power, and may even be contributing to the short-term crunch by waiting for the spring market to roll around.

The question is how many sellers are out there waiting to list their property, how much demand will respond, and how that will impact prices later this year. The East-West Gap Continues to Grow This month, with the Prairie markets and parts of Eastern Canada standing in stark contrast to Ontario and B.C. in regards to price growth and buyer conditions. On a national perspective, Canadian real estate remains in a seller's market, with a sales-to-new-listings ratio of 65.1% in January. This is down slightly from the 67.2% recorded in December, but still indicative that conditions are tight for buyers in the majority of local markets. Zoocasa is a full-service brokerage that offers advanced online search tools to empower Canadians.