Decreased activity in Vancouver’s resale housing market dampened Canadian housing activity gains in April, according to Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) numbers released this morning.
According to the CREA, national housing activity edged up by 0.8% in April, relative to March.
The national average price for homes sold in April 2012 was $375,810, up 0.9% from the same month last year. CREA noted that while that price gain is quite flat on a national basis, average sale prices were up year-over-year in 80% of all local markets in April.
“It bears repeating that the national average price was skewed higher last spring by record level high-end home sales in Vancouver’s priciest neighbourhoods, and that a replay of this phenomenon was not expected this year,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist.
“Sales data confirm that high-end activity in Vancouver is well off the peak levels reached at this time last year, which is exerting a gravitational pull on the national average price.”
Klump said that if Vancouver had been left out of the national average price calculations, the country would have seen a 4.9% year-over-year gain.
Klump noted that, in contrast, Toronto’s housing activity is currently Canada’s most active housing market and is buoying the national average price. Removing just Toronto from the average price calculation would produce a 2.2% year-over-year national decline.
He said factoring out both Toronto and Vancouver from the calculations would give a 3.1% increase in average price across Canada.
“On balance, this points to modest price growth amid balanced market conditions in much of the rest of Canada,” he said.
