Canadian real estate market is finally waking up after years of decline. AndCanadian real estate market is finally waking up after years of decline. Well, before you start guessing, it’s not all due to Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts. , before you start guessing, it’s not all due to Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts. Bank of Canada cut interest rates a total of four times since including a healthy 50-bps cut, but as it turned out cheaper borrowing rate wasn’t all buyers needed to get back to the market. One of the biggest contributors to the growth of the market is the jump in listings.
To put things in perspective, overall sales climbed up by 7.7% month-over-month and by over 30% year-over-year (not-seasonally-adjusted basis). If we talk about previous months, September saw 1.9% rise month-over-month and August saw 1.3% rise.
The report comes after Toronto and Vancouver real estate boards posted phenomenal year-over-year surge in sales in October — 44% and over 30%, respectively. Well, now it seems the urban areas aren’t alone. As per the Canadian Real Estate Organization (CREA), nationwide sales in October were the highest they’ve been since April of 2022.
Speaking about the improvement in the market, Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist, said, “The jump in home sales last month was definitely an October surprise, although with the big interest rate cut of 50 basis points announced during the last week of the month, the increase was more likely related to the surge in new listings we saw in September. There probably won’t be another rush of new supply like that until next spring, and at that point, mortgage rates should be close to their expected lows, as well. With that in mind, you can think of the October numbers as a sort of preview for what we might expect to see next year.”
CREA’s Chair James Mabey says October’s positive reflect there are good options in the market right now. “October’s strong sales numbers across Canada suggest buyers have been in the market since rates began to fall in early summer, but they were waiting for the right property to come up for sale, which didn’t happen in a big way until September. The extent to which that will be able to continue between now and next spring will depend on the number of listings coming onto the market,” said James.
