Houses selling for over asking, getting multiple offers, selling sight-unseen. For New Brunswick’s sizzling real estate market, it’s all part of the new normal.
The Canadian Real Estate Association issued its October statistics on Monday, showing “historically strong” national home sales for the fourth straight month.
Even factoring in a “very quiet spring market” this year, the report said, it’s the second-highest January-October on record for national sales, trailing only 2016.
“For anyone waiting for the Canadian existing home market to begin to settle down … they’re going to have to wait a little longer,” Canadian Real Estate Association senior economist Shaun Cathcart said. “At this point, activity in 2020 has a real shot at setting an annual record.”
It’s a trend that has been playing out in New Brunswick for months — accompanied by buying behaviours the province hasn’t traditionally seen, the province’s real estate association president says.
It’s common now to have people buying houses sight unseen. Often, the first time they see it is on closing.– Andre Malenfant, New Brunswick Real Estate Association
“Every month we’re seeing record sales numbers,” New Brunswick Real Estate Association president Andre Malenfant said on Monday, noting homes are selling faster and for higher prices.
“Traditionally, we’ve been a balanced market, even a buyer’s market,” he said. “But now, we’re definitely a seller’s market.”
Malenfant said a series of factors are driving the climb, chief among them New Brunswick’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and “the law of supply and demand.”
“We’re continuing to see an increase in buyers coming from other provinces to get away from COVID,” Malenfant said. “We’ve handled it pretty well and we have attracted attention” across Canada because of it.
Buyers are mainly coming here from Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, Malenfant said. They’re taking virtual tours of houses, offering over asking, sometimes even sparking bidding wars.
Real estate sales figures kept up their record pace for the month of October, New Brunswick Real Estate Association president André Malenfant said. ‘It’s definitely a seller’s market.’ (Submitted by André Malenfant)
“It’s common now to have people buying houses sight unseen,” Malenfant said. “Often, the first time they see it is on closing. So they take possession, lock themselves in the house and quarantine for 14 days.”
In some cases, he said, buyers will have a New Brunswick friend or relative come to tour the house before they buy it. But if that’s not an option, the virtual tour can be “quite detailed, quite precise,” with realtors zooming in closely on any facet of a home a potential buyer wants a closer look at.
A tighter-than-usual supply is also pushing prices up, with some people choosing not to list their home during the pandemic.
There are also greater numbers of retirees returning home to New Brunswick and retiring earlier than they’d planned because of the pandemic’s chill on economies out west, Malenfant said.
Prices in each of the three biggest cities are up, with the Greater Moncton area leading the pack with a 15.1 per cent year-over-year increase in house prices, followed by Saint John with an increase of 12.3 per cent and Fredericton with a 5.3 per cent increase.
But the biggest jump is in northern New Brunswick, where Malenfant said prices are up 48.8 per cent over last year.
So how long can buyers and sellers expect this trend to go on?
“Real estate is cyclical,” Malenfant said. “It will eventually slow down. Next year at this time we will likely see an increase in inventory, a lot of people putting their property up for sale. But I think it’s going to stay strong for a while yet.”
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.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
