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There’s No Shortage Of Homes For Sale These Days

A report from The Province in Canada. “Vancouver’s once red-hot housing market continued to cool last month as the number of home sales fell to the lowest level seen in January in 10 years. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says 1,103 homes were sold in Metro Vancouver last month, down 39.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier.”

“Sales of detached homes fell 30.4 per cent year-over-year, while the benchmark price pulled back 9.1 per cent from January 2018 to $1,453,400. The board says home prices across all property types have fallen over the region in the past seven months, pressured by the federal government’s mortgage stress test that tightened home-buying rules last year.”

“‘This measure, coupled with an increase in mortgage rates, took away as much as 25 per cent of purchasing power from many homebuyers trying to enter the market,’ said the board’s president, Phil Moore.”

The Huffington Post. “There’s no shortage of homes available for sale these days in Vancouver. The latest data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) shows the number of homes for sale in the region jumped by 27.7 per cent in January, compared to the same month a year earlier.”

“From December to January, the number of homes for sale jumped a massive 244 per cent. While it’s normal for the number of houses for sale to jump after the holidays, this is an unusually large increase. Last year, the increase was around 100 per cent.”

“Taken together, this means Vancouver’s housing market is now a ‘buyer’s market’ for all housing types. Only 6.8 out of every 100 detached homes on the market sells in any given month. For townhouses, there are 11.9 sales for every 100 on the market, and there are 13.6 condo sales for every 100.”

“What’s more, the city is headed for a deluge of new housing units set to hit the market over the next couple years, giving buyers even more options. Some 40,000 new housing units are expected to hit the market over the next two years.”

The Canadian Press. “New home sales sank to their lowest level in almost two decades in Toronto last year driven by a drop in new condominium sales, a pair of reports say. More than 25,000 new homes were sold in the Greater Toronto Area in 2018, according to the Altus Group Ltd. That’s the lowest number since it started tracking sales in 2000.”

“New condominium sales fell 38 per cent to 21,330, while new single-family home sales plunged 50 per cent to 3,841. The average price of new single-family homes fell 6.7 per cent to $1,143,505 in December while condo prices rose 11 per cent to $796,815.”

“New condo sales slumped 31 per cent in the fourth quarter to 6,040 from a record 8,816 in the same period of 2017, according to real estate consulting firm Urbanation Inc. Resale prices increased by an average of 7.3 per cent on a per square foot basis, down from a 26.1 per cent increase in 2017, marking a move to normalization after unprecedented activity, said Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand.”

“‘Overall, market fundamentals continue to support current sales levels and prices, although greater caution should be exercised with respect to investing in new units, particularly over a short-term time horizon, as current trends are pointing towards slower appreciation going forward,’ he said.”

The Edmonton Journal. “Total residential unit sales in the Edmonton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) decreased 15 per cent relative to last January, the Realtors Association of Edmonton said. Single family home sales dropped 14.34 per cent while condominiums decreased 18.56 per cent and duplex/rowhouse sales dipped 1.02 per cent.”

“Single family home sales dropped 14.34 per cent while condominiums decreased 18.56 per cent and duplex/rowhouse sales dipped 1.02 per cent. The average selling price of a single family Edmonton area home was $404,275, a decrease of 6.04 per cent compared to January 2018 and a drop of 5.52 per cent compared to December.”

“‘The real estate market is still experiencing the consequences of high inventory and slow sales,’ Realtors Association of Edmonton chairman Michael Brodrick said in a statement. ‘Buyers are benefiting from more choice but may be struggling with the mortgage qualification rules, while sellers will need to continue to be patient and flexible in this market.'”

From Point 2 Homes. “The big story in the Edmonton market at the end of 2018 has to be the high number of listings on offer in the city. The number of active listings there topped 6,000 at the end of the December. This is the highest number of listings that have been available in the city in over a decade.”

“As a result of slowing sales coupled with the dramatic increases in listings, the number of months of inventory in the city is also at a ten-year high. There are nearly nine months of inventory available at current sale rates, while the highest previous level in the last ten years sat at just below seven months.”

From CTV News Calgary. “It’s been a slow start for the housing market in Calgary in 2019 and real estate analysts are blaming the economy for a continued decline in the statistics. The Calgary Real Estate Board released its report on the housing market in January and it found that sales are down by 16 percent from last year.”

“The average price of a home in Calgary dropped to $414,800 last month, one percent lower from December and four percent lower than January 2018. The report says the most significant declines in sales occurred in the north and west districts of Calgary. The south, northwest and City Centre districts suffered the most in terms of prices.”

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This Post Has 24 Comments

  1. ‘1,103 homes were sold in Metro Vancouver last month, down 39.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier’

    What this doesn’t explain is that a year earlier was crater. Actually, they are on year three of crater in Vancouver.

    ‘Taken together, this means Vancouver’s housing market is now a ‘buyer’s market’ for all housing types. Only 6.8 out of every 100 detached homes on the market sells in any given month. For townhouses, there are 11.9 sales for every 100 on the market, and there are 13.6 condo sales for every 100’

    Hottest market on the planet in 2016. Then it went into a freefall.

  2. “Sales of detached homes fell 30.4 per cent year-over-year, while the benchmark price pulled back 9.1 per cent from January 2018 to $1,453,400. The board says home prices across all property types have fallen over the region in the past seven months, pressured by the federal government’s mortgage stress test that tightened home-buying rules last year.”

    Damn you stress test! 70K income should afford 1.5 millions!!!!

    1. Yeah, and year after year the REIC said, “we need to build more to bring prices down!” That was a crock.

      1. “Yeah, and year after year the REIC said, ‘we need to build more to bring prices down!’ That was a crock.”

        You use what works.

  4. “What’s more, the city is headed for a deluge of new housing units set to hit the market over the next couple years, giving buyers even more options. Some 40,000 new housing units are expected to hit the market over the next two years.”

    Shortage!?

  5. San Diego County apartment rush continues. More than 4,500 planned for ’19

    At their construction site for the Nimitz Crossing in Point Loma, Rudy Medina (left) and Andrew T. Luce (right) from Next Space Development. The project will construct 24 new apartment units, including 9000 sq. ft. of ground level retail space. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)
    Phillip Molnar
    January 29, 2019

    San Diego’s rental income gold rush shows no sign of slowing down.

    More than 4,500 apartments are scheduled to open in 2019, outpacing last year’s total by roughly 1,000.

    Last year, the multifamily market was dominated by immense new projects in downtown — especially in East Village and Little Italy — but many of the new apartment buildings this year are outside of the city center in neighborhoods like University Heights, Pacific Beach, Point Loma and North Park.

    Analysts say the reasons for continued apartment growth are consistently rising rents, lack of homes and apartments in the for-sale housing and rental markets, as well as increasing barriers to homeownership making renting a necessary option.

    “San Diego is perennially undersupplied. It’s a high demand, low supply market. So no matter when and where we get apartments, San Diego just doesn’t have problems with absorption at all,” said broker Darcy Miramontes with real estate investment and management firm Jones Lang LaSalle, or JLL.

    JLL Research shows rents in the San Diego region growing by 4 percent in a year, outpacing Los Angeles (3.6 percent), San Francisco (3.5 percent), Oakland (2.5 percent) and Orange County (2.3 percent).
    …

  6. Thanks for covering Canada. Theres likely as much action there as the Aussies but they’re just better at keeping it just barely peeping from under the rug. Remains to be seen if politicians can keep the Canadian gas bag afloat. Read greaterfool.ca recent posts. Governing federal party (Libs) considering bringing back 30 yr mortgages and tinkering with the stress test as well as the CMHC scam. Don’t forget also that 2019 is election year and True-dope is sadly looking like he’ll pull it off with his “make houses cheaper” schtick and the fact Mad Max may split the cons. It is great fun to watch dimpled smirking Andrew Sheer rip True-dope in Parliament. It’ll be a popcorn grabbing election at least in that way.

    NA in general is turning nanny state but Canada’s worse for that in my opinion. As a duallie I think I can say that. That being said I’m also not saying that go broke or go home, get rich or die trying ‘Merican style is the best thing. Can’t we find a middle of the road?

    Quote tonight from your Canadian counterpart greaterfool.ca in comments section:

    “I just got wind that inventory in Kelowna housing market almost doubled in one month to just under 11 months supply.

    Wheeeeeeeeeeewwww!”

    1. I loved living in Montreal. Some of the best years of my life. I wish my son had dual citizenship.

  7. “From December to January, the number of homes for sale jumped a massive 244 per cent. While it’s normal for the number of houses for sale to jump after the holidays, this is an unusually large increase. Last year, the increase was around 100 per cent.”

    I smell fear. Are the herd creatures who “won” the bidding wars of recent years stampeding for the exits?

    1. Are the herd creatures who “won” the bidding wars of recent years stampeding for the exits?

      I figure most of them are stuck except maybe a few speculators. I thought the ones who would jump now would be the investing geniuses that just happened to buy at the moment the Fed stepped in last time who remember the last ride down that they profited from.

    1. They can rent rooms for $3000 a room. 6 HB1’s x $500 a month for a bunk bed. Maybe get $2000 for 3 tents in the backyard. $2000 for the garage.

  10. ‘Six years ago, with $100-plus oil puffing up the economy, practically every square foot of Class A space along Water and Duckworth streets was occupied, with oil and other professional companies paying premium leasing costs.’

    ‘But an economic downturn, combined with the construction of new office buildings in the downtown and elsewhere, has upended the situation in a big way. And property owners are taking notice by lowering prices and offering other incentives, such as free rent for limited periods.’

    ‘Records show more than a quarter of high-end office space in the downtown core is now vacant as big employers migrate to suburban commercial areas off Kenmount Road and near St. John’s International Airport, leaving some large office towers practically empty. And the exodus is far from over, putting some downtown advocates on edge.’

    ‘According to a December report by Halifax-based real estate consultants Turner Drake & Partners, the vacancy rate for downtown office space has grown to nearly 28 per cent, a year-over-year increase of more than six percentage points.’

    ‘The extreme example is the expanded and renovated 235 Water, the tower formerly known as Scotia Centre. As of last month there was more than 140,000 square feet of vacant space, roughly 65 per cent of the entire building.’

    ‘Half of the Fortis Building at 139 Water St. is empty, and roughly one-third of Fortis Place on Springdale Street is available for leasing. At Atlantic Place, nearly a quarter — 80,000 square feet — of the massive building is vacant.’

    It should be a big concern,” said Charlie Oliver, owner of property management firm Martek Morgan-Finch, with 37 years of experience in the downtown real estate market. “We’ve gone through five years of an exodus. Very biblical.”

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/echoes-emptiness-downtown-st-john-103000703.html

  12. Feel free to join the “Metro Vancouver Housing Collapse” Facebook forum and share in the information/discussions along with thousands of others since 11/11/17.

  13. “pulled back 9.1” These people cannot even mention “price drop”… They prefer to use euphamisoms to obsfucate the truth and cower from the hate their mindless cheerleading and proclamations will inevitably engender with those poor families that were guided by these morons. Geez worth 1/10 less already and the party just began… Effectively it is way more considering closing costs. At least the real estate fees are going to be lower on a significantly lower price, there you go… Always a silver lining…

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