Current Market Trends

Is the Current Real Estate Market Sustainable Or will it burst?

Friday, September 17, 2010

This year seems to be one of constant anticipation over sales activity reports. The anxiously awaited August numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), certainly are a great representation of that, and Wednesday they were finally reported. The good news is that for the first month since March 2010, national resale housing activity improved, showing a seasonally adjusted 4.1 percent increase from the previous month.

Most of the national sales activity improvement for August was as a result of increased activity in Ontario and British Columbia - both provinces which felt great pains in July with the onset of HST. Fortunately, over half of all local markets across the country remained stable or saw increases to this month's seasonally adjusted sales activity.

With a quick annual look in review, we find the year-to-date transactions are up 2.2 percent versus 2009's first eight months - partially due to sharp increases in activity during the second half of 2009, and continued momentum into the early months of 2010. The expectation as a result is the year-to-date transaction statistics, as we work through the final 4 months of 2010, will continue to dwindle in comparison to the year prior - even with a steady market.

CREA's Chief Economist, Gregory Klump, summarized it this way "The hangover from accelerated home purchases is likely to persist over the rest of the year. Although economic and job growth are expected to be tepid, they will continue to support housing markets.


 

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"I was referred to Paul from a good friend who worked with him in the sale of her condo in Toronto. After meeting with Paul, I was really impressed by his professionalism, humour and raw honesty. Paul came prepared to each meeting and gave a lot of advice on staging and "to do's" before listing my property and to ensure it was ready for video and photos. I am a believer that the video and photos were critical to my listing, and was totally worth rescheduling and reconfirming due to weather! In the end, Paul placed my property in a multiple offer scenario and we sold over asking in less than one week.
Once the deal was firm, we began the search for a new property. Paul was great in dealing with my busy schedule and sharing his advice on the properties we viewed, always listing the pro's, con's and resale in mind. We endured a very long and drawn out offer/sign back process (upwards of 6 sign backs with an extremely unprofessional Listing agent) that was exhausting and at no point did he ever show his frustration, even when the deal went flat. In the end, we did find the perfect property and this time it was seamless and we were able to avoid the multiple offer scenario through his smooth negotiations.

I have already referred Paul to a colleague and would have no problem referring others. Overall, a great experience!"
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