National home sales and new listings declined in March after an abrupt jump in February..Sales fell back 5.4% between February and March 2022, putting activity back in line with where it had been since last fall..Half of the markets measured monthly by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) showed sales declines in March, led by declines in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Calgary..A slowdown is a good thing, says Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist..“It was good to see a moderation in the housing markets in March, given so many observers were dreading another year of price gains like we saw in 2021,” says Cathcart. “There were a number of measures announced in the federal budget to help aspiring home buyers, the biggest being getting more housing built.” .“That is the obvious long-term solution to this issue because we all need to live somewhere. In the near-term, the Bank of Canada will do the heavy lifting in the months ahead to slow things down on the price side. Unfortunately, that won’t really do anything to help affordability. Quite the opposite in fact.”.New listings dropped 5.5% on a month-over-month basis in March following a jump in February. The monthly decline was led by Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Calgary and the GTA..The sales-to-new listings ratio changed minutely in March, rising to 75.3% from 75.2% in February. The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 55.1%..The number of national transactions in March 2022 were 16.3% below the all-time record set in March 2021. .“That said, as has been the case since last summer, it remains the second-highest level on record for that month,” says Cathcart..The national average home price was $796,000 in March 2022, up 11.2% from the same month last year. The price is heavily influenced by sales in Greater Vancouver Area and the GTA, two of Canada’s most active and expensive housing markets. .Excluding these two markets from the calculation in March 2022 cuts $163,000 from the national average price. .Royal LePage reported there are 28 markets in Canada with average sales prices above $1 million, so the national average price is skewed even more by these markets, as well as the GTA and GVA..Nationally, there were 1.8 months of inventory at the end of March 2022, a slight improvement from the record-low of just 1.6 months in the previous three months. The long-term average for this measure is more than five months..“While the market remains historically very active, March definitely saw a slowdown compared to February in terms of both activity and price growth,” says Jill Oudil, chair of CREA. “One month does not make a trend, so we’ll have to wait and see if this is the beginning of the long-awaited cooling off of this market.”.The March numbers were compiled before the Bank of Canada raised its overnight rate, which subsequently raised mortgage rates. .The announcements about housing in the federal budget were also made after the March statistics were totaled..The Calgary market picked up speed in April..Statistics from the Calgary Real Estate Board — the only real estate board that tallies stats in real time — show from April 1 to 19, sales are up 8.6% from the same time frame last year. .Over the same time period, new and active listings in Calgary are down, year-over-year, 2.1% and 21%, respectively..Year-to-date (January 1 to April 19) sales are up 46.24% (11,493 from 7,859) from last year at this time..Townhomes and apartments lead the sales charge, with sales increases of 46.56% and 42.86% respectively..Myke Thomas is a Western Standard contributor
