It appears the novel coronavirus pandemic is loosening its effect on the housing market in Kamloops as well as the Central, North Okanagan and Shuswap as real estate sales almost doubled in May compared to the month before.
According to figures from the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board, housing sales jumped 95 per cent in May from April, however, sales still took a big hit, down 42 per cent compared to the same month in 2019.
The Real Estate Board reports 446 units sold in May, up from 299 units in April.
Statistics from the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association paint a similar picture with sales of single-family homes down 52 per cent in May compared to the same month 2019. Prices still managed to increase though, with single-family homes up by nine per cent.
While the volume of sales certainly is down, the price of a single-family home still climbed in the region from Peachland to Revelstoke, albeit modestly with increases between five per cent in the Central Okanagan to one-and-a-half per cent in the Shuswap/Revelstoke.
Townhouses and condos didn’t fair as well, with sales and prices declining in all markets across the region, with the exception of the Central Okanagan. Sales of townhouses in the Central Okanagan felt by 44 per cent, however, the price still managed to creep up by 1.7 per cent.
“While we are still in the midst of a global pandemic it is encouraging to see that residential sales are moving at an upward trajectory,” Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board president Kim Heizmann said in a media release. “We are starting to see a return to real estate activity which looks promising for the future, however, we remain cautious about predicting future outcomes as many economic factors will have impacts.”
The number of properties on the market increased nine per cent in May compared to April but is still 16 per cent lower than the same month the year before. The average number of days to sell a home also increased to 91 days in May from 83 days in April.
In Penticton, sagging South Okanagan real estate sales did not seem to have a negative effect on the average sale price of a single family home, according to May real estate statistics.
The South Okanagan Real Estate Board says the average price of a single-family home rose by nine per cent to $605,768 compared to $553,636 in May 2019.
That’s in spite of the fact single family monthly sales declined by 39 per cent from 117 units last May to 71 units sold in May.
The number of active listings also dropped 11 per cent, from 1,417 last May to 1,262 this May.
Overall sales volume was down from $92,856,414 in May, 2019 to $61,803,933 in May, 2020, a decline of 34 per cent.
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TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
