Derrick Penner
Sun
A significant November rebound in Metro Vancouver housing re-sales helped push overall activity above 2006 levels, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported.
The association registered 2,952 sales through the Multiple Listing Service, a 22 per cent increase from the same month a year ago.
As of the end of November, Metro Vancouver saw 37,021 units change hands, which is 6.6 per cent more than the number of units that were sold up to the same point in 2006.
The average unit price topped $577,000 in November, up 11.2 per cent from the same month a year ago.
Nationally, 345,577 sales were cleared through MLS by the end of November smashing 2005’s record of 336,646 real estate sales.
However, while a tax change in Toronto can help explain a late 2007 surge in sales, the factors pushing up Vancouver are less clear, according to Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist for BMO Capital Markets.
“Vancouver has been average or below average for sales growth [in 2007] to date,” Porter said. “I’m not aware of any particular special factors that would have hit Vancouver in November.”
Porter added that sales that are growing faster than new listings being added to market inventories suggest that markets are not becoming unbalanced.
Nationally, however, “I would say it is surprising, given all the gloomy headlines we’ve been inundated with about bad news from the U.S. housing market and the U.S. economy in general.”
However, Porter said Alberta‘s formerly “scorching hot” markets of Edmonton and Calgary have retreated steeply from 2006 sales figures, and new listings in both cities are headed toward double-digit increases.
“That’s not a friendly combo for prices looking ahead,” Porter wrote in a research note.
Looking at the national picture, however, Gregory Klump, chief economist for the Canadian Real Estate Association, in an interview, said even Edmonton and Calgary saw somewhat of a November rebound in sales.
“Demand remains strong due to continuing job and income growth and upbeat consumer confidence,” Gregory Klump, association chief economist said.
