Canadian home sales edge up in February

According to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales activity edged up slightly on month-over-month basis in February 2015.
Highlights:

• National home sales edged up 1.0% from January to February.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity stood 2.7% above February 2014 levels.
• The number of newly listed homes fell 2.5% from January to February.
• The Canadian housing market remains balanced.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 5.01% year-over-year in February.
• The national average sale price rose 6.3% on a year-over-year basis in February.

The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate
Boards and Associations rose by one per cent in February 2015 compared to January.
The monthly increase was led by Greater Vancouver, the Okanagan region, and Greater Toronto. Gains there offset sales declines elsewhere, with more than half of all local markets having posted weaker sales in February compared to January.
“A number of buyers across the Prairies stayed on the sidelines in February,” said CREA President Beth Crosbie. “That’s likely to remain an important part of the national housing story until the outlook for oil prices starts improving. Meanwhile, home sales in British Columbia and much of Ontario are improving, which underscores the fact that all real estate is local. Nobody knows this better than your local REALTOR®, who remains your best source for information about the housing market where you currently live or might like to in the future.”
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity in February stood 2.7 per cent above levels reported in the same month last year, but remained five per cent below the 10-year average for the month of February.
“Sales came in below the ten-year average for the month of February in two-thirds of all local markets,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “That said, the opposite was true in a few large urban markets in British Columbia and Ontario despite a shortage of listings there, which is fuelling prices higher.”
The number of newly listed homes fell 2.5 per cent in February compared to January, led by Greater Vancouver, the Okanagan region, and Calgary. New listings in Calgary have retreated in recent months after having climbed sharply toward the end of last year.
The national sales-to-new listings ratio was 52.2 per cent in February. With sales up and new listings down, this marked an increase from 50.4 per cent in January.