September sales slowdown; the year’s first decline
Jamie Henry
Other
Despite a positive year-over-year result, national home sales were down in September; the first monthly decline since January. New figures from the Canadian Real Estate Board show that nationally in September there was a drop of 1.4 per cent from the previous month.
There were declines in 60 per cent of markets led by Calgary, Edmonton, Central Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, London & St. Thomas, Windsor-Essex, and Ottawa. There were increases in Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan region, Mississauga, Durham and York regions of the Greater Toronto Area, Sherbrooke, and the Northern region of Nova Scotia.
Lower supply is one of the main factors in the slowdown in activity, with a 1.6 per cent drop in new listings in September, but high prices are also starting to bite. CREA president Beth Crosbie commented: “Affordably priced single family homes are in short supply in some of Canada’s hottest housing markets, which contributed to the monthly decline in national sales activity in September.”
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