RESALE NUMBERS

Canadian resale housing market up 58% from year-ago levels
By Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald
February 17, 2010

CALGARY - National activity in the resale housing market declined in January from the previous month but was up 58 per cent from year-ago levels, when national home sales activity reached the lowest level in a decade.

In releasing its January MLS data on Wednesday, the Canadian Real Estate Association said the average price of all homes sold through the MLS systems of Canadian real estate boards last month was $328,537, which was up 19.6 per cent from a year ago.

"In January 2009, the average residential sale price fell to the lowest level in almost three years," said the association which represents more than 96,000 realtors working through more than 100 real estate boards and associations.

"Year-over-year average price gains are being stretched by weakness one year ago, and are expected to shrink beginning next month."

In Calgary, MLS sales in January increased by 52.5 per cent from last year to 1,466 units for an average sale price of $397,518, up by 5.8 per cent. New listings fell by 6.7 per cent to 3,919 units and dollar volume jumped by 61.4 per cent to $582.8 million.

MLS sales in Alberta were up by 34.6 per cent from a year ago to 2,934 units. The average sale price increased by 6.4 per cent to $343,264. New listings dropped by 2.4 per cent to 8,162 units and the total dollar volume for the month of January was up by 43.2 per cent from a year ago to just over $1 billion.

Nationally, new listings were up by 3.4 per cent to 64,561 units and the total dollar volume increased by 89.3 per cent to $8.4 billion.

"January results suggest that the national resale housing market may be past the recent peak," said Gregory Klump, CREA's chief economist. "One car doesn't make a parade, so a few more months of results showing a cooling trend will be required before talk of a Canadian housing bubble begins to fade.

"It could take until the second half of the year before a cooling trend becomes evident, since home buying activity may continue to be accelerated in the first half of 2010 by expected interest rate increases and by the introductioni of the HST in Ontario and British Columbia on Canada Day."