The average price for a house in Canada has increased by six percent to $433,649 in September, while the sales of existing homes have been lessened by 2.1 percent in the same month, compared to the previous month of August.
According to the report of the Canadian Real Estate Association, the amount of homes being traded through the MLS® Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations fell by 2.1 per cent in September.
More than half of the local market led by the Greater Vancouver, Calgary and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have experience a decrease in sales.
CREA President Pauline Aunger said that the strength in sales varies considerably among markets and price segments across Canada.
Gregory Klump, CREA's Chief Economist, said that lack of supply in some parts of the country is the cause of the decrease in home sales. He also mentioned that Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto Area have made a sizeable contribution to the decrease of home sales in the country. The lack of supply and inventory is not only causing the decrease of home sales but also affecting the increase of the average home price in Canada.
"Although national sales activity was not as strong in September as it was earlier this year, a lack of supply in some parts of the country is likely keeping a lid on transactions," said Klump, "The GTA and Greater Vancouver made sizeable contributions to the monthly decline in national sales activity. They also rank among the tightest urban housing markets in the country due to a shortage of inventory and supply of land on which to build, which is why prices there continue to grow strongly."
CREA also stated in their press release that the 6.1 percent increase of average home prices are due to the sales activity of Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto Area. If the they were to be excluded in the computation, the home price increase will be lessen to 2.9 percent making the average home price to be $334,705.
