What a contrast to what has happened in the US!
No moving in with relatives up here.
I don't think it can carry on and we are due for a downturn in our housing market but it has been an amazing year considering.
http://money.canoe.ca/News/Economy/2009 ... 6-qmi.html$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Canadian Real Estate Association has raised its forecasts for this year and next after home sales hit a record in October.
The association forecasts national housing sales will rise 6.6 per cent this year, compared with a previous forecast for the market to be close to 2008 levels. In 2010, sales are expected to jump 7 per cent, making it the second strongest year ever for sales after 2007.
Canadian home sales reached a new monthly record in October as record low interest rates and pent up demand brought buyers back into the market.
The CREA said seasonally adjusted home sales hit 45,818 units in October, 2 per cent higher than the previous record set in May 2007 and 74 per cent higher than in January when activity dropped to the lowest level in a decade. New records for the month were set in about a fifth of local markets, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
The average prices also reached a new high for the month, jumping 21 per cent over the same month last year. The national residential average price rose to $341,079.
"New listings are still expected to rise in the coming months in response to headline average price increases," said CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump. "New supply dropped dramatically in December last year and earlier this year in response to a difficult pricing environment. Sellers who moved to the sidelines should be drawn back to the market as prices rise further over the rest of the year and in early 2010."
The sharp rise in resale housing demand has shrunk inventories. There were 194,994 homes listed for sale on the MLS system at the end of October 2009. This is 20.8 per cent below the peak reached in October of last year, and the sixth month in a row in which inventories are down from year-ago levels.
Canadian home sales reached a new record in October as record low interest rates and pent up demand brought buyers back into the market.
The Canadian Real Estate Association said seasonally adjusted home sales hit 45,818 units in October, two per cent higher than the previous record set in May 2007 and 74 per cent higher than in January when activity dropped to the lowest level in a decade. New records for the month were set in about a fifth of local markets, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
The average prices also reached a new high for the month, jumping 21 per cent over the same month last year.
The national residential average price rose to $341,079.
"New listings are still expected to rise in the coming months in response to headline average price increases," said CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump. "New supply dropped dramatically in December last year and earlier this year in response to a difficult pricing environment. Sellers who moved to the sidelines should be drawn back to the market as prices rise further over the rest of the year and in early 2010."
The sharp rise in resale housing demand has shrunk inventories. There were 194,994 homes listed for sale on the MLS system at the end of October 2009. This is 20.8 per cent below the peak reached in October of last year, and the sixth month in a row in which inventories are down from year-ago levels.