m city condos floor plans.Canadian house prices plummeted! As covid-19 (covid-19) continues to spread in Canada, it has had a huge impact on Canada’s housing market, which was returning to a fiery state. In the past March, housing sales and listing volume have declined sharply.Please Visit: m city condos floor plans to Get Your VVIP Registration Today!
According to the statistical data released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (crea), the national housing sales plummeted by 14.3% in March 2020, and the newly listed houses plummeted by 12.5%.
Crea said that although the sales activity still increased by 7.8% compared with the same period last year, the housing market was at a low point in March 2019, and the growth was very slow. The sales volume in February 2020 increased by nearly 30% compared with February 2019.
At the beginning of March 2020, the Canadian housing market was very hot before it was affected by the epidemic, but the outbreak of the epidemic directly poured cold water on the market.
The slowdown in economic activity across the country, coupled with the need to maintain social distance between people, led to a significant slowdown in the housing market in the second half of March.
Compared with the level in February, housing sales in almost all major cities in Canada are declining:
The Greater Toronto area decreased by 20.8%;
The Greater Vancouver area decreased by 2.9%;
The FISA River Valley fell by 13.6%;
Montreal fell 13.3%;
Calgary fell 26.3%;
Edmonton fell 13.2%;
Winnipeg fell 7.3%;
Hamilton Burlington fell 24.9%;
Ottawa fell 7.9%.
Although the outbreak has changed the housing market in Canada, overall, the balance between housing sales and new housing sources is very similar to that before the outbreak. In about two-thirds of the local market, there is a balance between house sales and newly listed houses, and the rest of the market is beneficial to sellers. Since the second half of March in BC Province, housing sales have also fallen sharply. Experts from the provincial housing association said that housing sales will slow down significantly in April.
Re / max, a real estate company, said last week that the sharp decline of Chinese buyers had also had a considerable impact on the Canadian housing market, especially the real estate market in the great temperature region. It was supposed to be the peak season of housing sales during the lunar new year, but at that time, China was fully coping with the epidemic. Everyone was at home, so they didn’t want to go abroad to buy a house.
With the outbreak of the epidemic in Canada and the implementation of various blockade policies, buyers from China will naturally not come to Canada to buy houses at this time. Various uncertainties are affecting the Canadian housing market.
In order to help Canadians adapt to the current economic situation, the Bank of Canada confirmed that it would maintain the interest rate cut to 0.25%, which means that buyers who borrow from banks will usually get credit with lower interest rates than before, which allows buyers to have more money to deal with mortgage and other expenses.
In the past three weeks, the central bank has significantly reduced the target of overnight interest rate by 150 basis points to maintain the interest rate at 0.25%, which is the lowest interest rate that can be set at present.
The level of economic activity in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 1-3%, and the level of economic activity in the second quarter will fall by 15-30% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019. According to experts’ estimates, Canada’s GDP will shrink by 9% in March.
By lowering interest rates, the central bank can provide more credit to enterprises and people in need, which will lay the foundation for the recovery of the economy.
However, if housing sales remain depressed, Rishi Sondhi, an economist at Dominion Bank, said that housing prices will inevitably fall in the end.
Sandy said, “due to the pressure of the epidemic, potential sellers have been forced to retreat, and the listing and sales of houses have shrunk at the same time.”
“At present, the market can still maintain balance and maintain the lower price limit. However, the longer the economy is weak, the greater the opportunity for people to be forced to list their houses for sale. Such a result will bring downward pressure on house prices.”
Robert Kavcic, an economist at the Bank of Montreal, also believes that house prices cannot always be affected by the slowdown in the real estate market, so the impact depends on how long the epidemic will last.