OTTAWA – Canada’s housing market rebound appears to be slowing amid diminishing increases in national home sales, says the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The organization said on Monday that home sales saw their fourth consecutive increase in August, rising 0.9 per cent month-over-month to 39,366 from 39,028 and coming as roughly half of all local markets saw a month-over-month uptick, reported CTV News.
CREA attributed the drop to “major declines” in British Columbia real estate and stricter mortgage regulations that came into effect at the start of the year.
“Improving national home sales activity in recent months continues to obscure significant differences in regional trends for home sales and prices,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. “Moreover, recent monthly sales increases are diminishing, which suggests the recent rebound may be starting to lose steam.”
Economists said the slowdown signals a shift away from the “wild swings” the real estate market saw in recent years as prices and demand for homes skyrocketed, often causing a frenzied pace for sales.
TD Economics economist Rishi Sondhi said, “While one month of data hardly makes a trend, August’s performance could be a sign that the worst is over for the province.
Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets chief economist Douglas Porter called the housing market “a bit of a yawner, neither drastically hot nor desperately cold” in his note to investors.
