Canadian Home Prices Rise But Sales Do Not

As Canadian home prices continue to rise, the average home will cost you $391,820, an 8.5% rise from the previous year. However, as these figures continue to climb, the number of sales is not showing the same trend.

It appears that, as mortgage rates seem to have slowed, any sort of urgency to buy also has. Those buyers who were pre-approved for low rates made purchases before those rates expired, and this seems to have slowed the buyers' market. Nationally, sales fell by 3.2% in the month of October with Calgary leading the pricing race with 8.17% yearly increase and Greater Toronto up 4.54%, compared to 2012.

Some local markets showed yearly sales gains, including Calgary (which also showed pricing gains), Greater Vancouver, Greater Toronto (also pricing gains), and Edmonton.

Nationally, housing inventory (the amount of time it would take to sell all homes currently available, if no more homes came on the market) increased to a 6 month supply, up from 5.9 months in the previous month. This represents the first rise in supply since February of this year.

We would love to hear your thoughts about Canadian home prices or other housing trends, in our comment section below.

Are you seeing increased values but decreased sales volumes in your neighborhood? What is your take on the current Canadian mortgage rates? Let us know!

Photo courtesy of trinchetto’s Flickr