Another month, one more record.
Canada’s housing market set another four weekly record in January, with country wide sales rising by 35. 2% on an annual basis, and by 2% month-over-month, according to the latest data of one's Canadian Real Estate Association.
“2021 started off just like 2020 ended, with a number of key housing market indicators continuing to set records,” Costa Poulopoulos, CREA’s chair, said in a statement. “The two big challenges facing housing markets this year are the same ones we were facing last year—COVID and a lack of supply.”
Supply declined in January by 13.3% from a month prior and contributed to the national average sale price increasing year-over-year by 22.8%. The MLS Home Price Index increased by 1.9% from December to January and by 13.5% compared to January 2020.
Poulopoulos is hopeful that sellers will come out of the woodwork this year.
“It’s looking like our collective efforts to bring those COVID cases down over the last month and a half are working. With luck, some potential sellers who balked at wading into the market last year will feel more comfortable listing this year.”
Ontario drove national housing price growth last month. There were annual gains of 25-30% in Barrie, Niagara, Grey-Bruce Owen Sound, Huron Perth, Kawartha Lakes, London and St. Thomas, North Bay, Simcoe and District, and Southern Georgian Bay. Year-over-year gains of 20-25% were recorded in Hamilton, Guelph, Oakville-Milton, the Bancroft area, Brantford, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, Peterborough and the Kawarthas, and Ottawa, as well as in Moncton, New Brunswick.
The Lakelands region also spotted annual sales gains north along with 30%, CREA noted.
Relating to CREA’s Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart, a dearth of housing amount could conceivably drive prices likewise higher, with seasonality also understanding an outsized role.
“The problem with earnings season is that the buyers and sellers that will in time describe the Canadian housing story having to do with 2021 are mostly all still browsing the wings, ” he proclaimed in a statement. “It’s the inactive of winter and we’re only starting to get the second wave on COVID under control. We’re unlikely to get a rush of listings until the climate and public health situations improve, and won’t see buyers until their homes come up for sale. The best-case scenario would be if we see a loads of sellers who were gun-shy to engage for purchasing last year making a move this year. Major surge in supply is what a wide variety of markets really need this year to get many into the homes they want, and to routinely keep prices from accelerating any more than that they can already are. ”
