Balanced housing market ????

MyFairy · 发表于 2007-10-16 12:19

Breaking News from The Globe and Mail

Edmonton housing market regaining balance

LORI McLEOD

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The tide has begun to turn back in favour of Edmonton home buyers for the first time in almost 10 years as new listings flood the market, even as high prices keep prospective purchasers on the sidelines.

In a sellers' market since the fourth quarter of 1997, Edmonton started to move into balanced territory in the second quarter of this year, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

The third-quarter report on resale homes in Canada suggests the Edmonton market is now firmly balanced between buyers and sellers. It's the same story in Calgary, although the markets there equally favoured home sellers and purchasers just a year ago.

“I think it's quite remarkable how quickly those markets have shifted from sellers' to balanced. This is a good thing. I believe buyers will take their time and shop around, and that should take some of the steam out of price increases,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist at CREA.

In just a few months there has been a surge of new listings in both oil-rich Edmonton and Calgary as home owners seek to cash in while prices remain high. But with average prices up between 21 per cent and 41 per cent in Alberta's two biggest cities this year to date, it also means more potential buyers have decided to wait or are being priced out of the market.

Listings of resale homes in Edmonton rose almost 51 per cent this September from the year before to 3,919 new residences, according to CREA. Sales slipped by 44 per cent to 1,042 units compared with September, 2006.

In Calgary, 5,330 residences hit the market in September, an 11 per cent increase from the year before. Sales for the month fell by 11 per cent year-over-year to 1,953 units.

At the same time the cost of home ownership has been steadily increasing. For the first nine months of the year the average home price was up 41 per cent in Edmonton to $351,709 compared with the same period last year. In Calgary the average price was up 21 per cent to $432,108 compared with the year before.

The overheated Saskatoon and Regina markets could follow Alberta's lead, with sales now starting to lag the number of new listings there. Last month in Regina, 284 residences were sold compared with 415 new listings, and in Saskatoon there were 312 sales compared with 533 new listings. The average price of a home in Regina for the first nine months of the year has risen 23 per cent to $163,960, and 43 per cent in Saskatoon to $222,126, compared with the same period last year.

It's been a different story in other areas of Canada where the residential real estate markets have been strong but are rising at a slower and steadier pace.

The Ottawa market, for example, hit its highest sales level on record in the third quarter of 2007. Sales activity there has been steadily increasing since January, 2006, with sales up 7.3 per cent from the start of the year to 12,633 units and showing few signs of easing.

The area of London and St. Thomas, Ont., along with St. John's, Nfld., also had their highest quarterly activity levels on record in the third quarter.

Overall sales activity in Canada slipped by 4.1 per cent from the previous quarter, which had the highest level of sales activity CREA has on record. Sales slipped in the latter part of the quarter, down in September from August in the country's four largest markets, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

However, the average price of a home rose 11.9 per cent in the third quarter from the year before to $329,113. Average prices reached their highest level on record in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, the Ontario cities of Sudbury, Windsor, St. Catharines, Kitchener and Waterloo, and Quebec City and St. John's.

© The Globe and Mail

紫光 · 发表于 2007-10-16 12:22

沙发！

April · 发表于 2007-10-16 15:18

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