There was good news in the real estate and housing markets. Home sales surged by 56.9% in May from Aprils collapse. The Canadian Real Estate Association’s data showed that national home sales recovered by about one third of its Covid related loss between February and April. Year over year activity was down almost 40%. There was a jump in sales which together with a surge in new listings shows that there was pent up demand for housing by buyers who want to take advantage of record low interest rates.
Transactions were up from the Covid coma we were all in with sales rising in the Greater Toronto Area by 53% among other Canadian locations.
Current data suggests that housing activity has been steadily rising from the middle of April until at least the first week of June.
The number of new listings increased by a record 69% in May compared to April including gains across the country. The number of sales to new listings ratio fell to 58.8% compared to 63.3% in April. This shows some measure of balance in the housing market even though our economy suffered such a major blow.
Many homes that were already listed stayed on the market during the lockdown with reduced expectations for showings. They are now coming off the market, many by reason of a sale, leaving the real estate markets depleted of listings.
Prices haven’t fallen by much especially in the GTA and Golden Horseshoe Area around Toronto from a year ago. In fact, some cities such as Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton prices have been climbing but at a slower pace than before the lockdown.
For further info please see – http://ow.ly/h9Ic30qQYsK
Barrie and District Association of Realtors Inc. said its region showed a strong recovery from April as the number of residential units sold doubled. In May, prices showed a month over month increase of .6% from April 2020. The average price of units sold in the City of Barrie during May 2020 was $519,915. This was 1.8% less than the average price during April 2020. Last year the price increased by 1.3% for the same period.
For comparison and interest, in Simcoe County there were 2.2% less properties sold over last year during the same time frame from January to May 31st. The City of Barrie had a growth of 4.4% properties sold.
The average price in Barrie increased by 8.5% to $522,265 from the same time of year in 2019. Simcoe County saw a price increase of only 5.7%. Barrie accounted for 48.9% of al properties sold.
The Housing Price Index (HPI) showed a year-over-year increase of 12.0% between May 2020 and May 2019.
Info extracted from “May 2020 Statistics” released by the Barrie and District Real Estate Association.
