| | | Information Watch | May, 2011 | | Do you know of a friend or associate looking to buy or sell a house? | Click Here | | National home sales hold steady in March According to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national resale housing activity held steady in March 2011 compared to February. Seasonally adjusted national home sales activity in March came in one tenth of a percentage point above levels for the previous month, with stable demand in most large urban centres. With national sales in each of the first three months of 2011 running close to their five- or ten-year monthly averages, seasonally adjusted national sales activity in the first quarter of 2011 was up 4.5 per cent from levels recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, and reached the highest quarterly level in a year. Most of the quarterly increase in seasonally adjusted national sales activity was due to demand in Vancouver and Toronto. Recent changes to mortgage regulations may have caused a number of sales in some of Canada's more expensive housing markets to be brought forward into the first quarter that would have otherwise occurred later in the year. Sellers looking to tradeup before changes to mortgage regulations took effect made their move early, resulting in a significant rise in newly listed homes in January and February of this year. With changes to mortgage regulations looming in March, seasonally adjusted new residential listings for the month dropped five per cent month-to-month. Steady sales activity combined with fewer new listings tightened the national resale housing market. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of the balance between supply and demand, stood at 56.5 per cent in March. This kept the national housing market firmly entrenched in balanced territory, with March marking the firmest reading for national market balance in more than a year. Based on sales-to-new listings ratios, more than half of local markets in Canada could be considered balanced in March, with two-thirds of the remaining markets considered to be as sellers' markets. "The majority of local housing markets across Canada are well balanced, but not all of them are," said Gary Morse, CREA's President. "Within a province or local market, the balance between resale housing supply and demand can vary widely and evolve quickly, so buyers and sellers should speak with a local REALTOR® to understand housing market trends where they live." The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand. The seasonally adjusted number of months of inventory stood at 5.6 months at the end of March on a national basis. This was unchanged from the previous month. Almost half of all local markets saw the number of months of inventory shrink compared to the previous month. Throughout the first quarter of 2011, the national average price was skewed higher by strong activity in a few pricey areas of Greater Vancouver. March 2011 was no exception, with an increase of 8.9 per cent year over year. "A record number of multi-million dollar property sales in Richmond and Vancouver West are pushing up average prices for Greater Vancouver, British Columbia and nationally," stated Gregory Klump, CREA's Chief Economist. "If Vancouver is excluded from the equation, the national average price increase is cut by more than half to 4.3 per cent." "Looking ahead, evidence suggests that the potential rush of sales activity in March before recent changes to mortgage regulations took effect was a story that was largely focused in condo sales activity in Greater Vancouver. This confirms that the expected impact on sales activity of recent changes to mortgage regulations will likely be minor over the near term. Interest rates are now widely expected to remain on hold until at least mid-July, which is supportive for resale housing demand, market balance and prices," Klump added. PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national MLS® sales information from the previous month. CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighborhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types. MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by Canada's real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada's largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 100,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations. Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate target at 1 per cent The Bank of Canada announced April 12th, 2011 that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent. As anticipated in the January Monetary Policy Report (MPR), the global economic recovery is becoming more firmly entrenched and is expected to continue at a steady pace. In the United States, growth is solidifying, although consolidation of household and ultimately government balance sheets will limit the pace of the expansion. European growth has strengthened, despite ongoing sovereign debt and banking challenges in the periphery. The disasters that struck Japan in March will severely affect its economic activity in the first half of this year and create short-term disruptions to supply chains in advanced economies. Robust demand from emerging-market economies is driving the underlying strength in commodity prices, which is being further reinforced by supply shocks arising from recent geopolitical events. These price increases, combined with persistent excess demand conditions in major emerging-market economies, are contributing to the emergence of broader global inflationary pressures. Despite the significant challenges that weigh on the global outlook, global financial conditions remain very stimulative and investors have become noticeably less risk averse. Although recent economic activity in Canada has been stronger than the Bank had anticipated, the profile is largely consistent with the underlying dynamics outlined in the January MPR. Aggregate demand is rebalancing toward business investment and net exports, and away from government and household expenditures. As in January, the Bank expects business investment to continue to rise rapidly and the growth of consumer spending to evolve broadly in line with that of personal disposable income, although higher terms of trade and wealth are likely to support a slightly stronger profile for household expenditures than previously projected. In contrast, the improvement in net exports is expected to be further restrained by ongoing competitiveness challenges, which have been reinforced by the recent strength of the Canadian dollar. Overall, the Bank projects that the economy will expand by 2.9 per cent in 2011 and 2.6 per cent in 2012. Growth in 2013 is expected to equal that of potential output, at 2.1 per cent. The Bank expects that the economy will return to capacity in the middle of 2012, two quarters earlier than had been projected in the January MPR. While underlying inflation is subdued, a number of temporary factors will boost total CPI inflation to around 3 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 before total CPI inflation converges to the 2 per cent target by the middle of 2012. This short-term volatility reflects the impact of recent sharp increases in energy prices and the ongoing boost from changes in provincial indirect taxes. Core inflation has fallen further in recent months, in part due to temporary factors. It is expected to rise gradually to 2 per cent by the middle of 2012 as excess supply in the economy is slowly absorbed, labour compensation growth stays modest, productivity recovers and inflation expectations remain well-anchored. The persistent strength of the Canadian dollar could create even greater headwinds for the Canadian economy, putting additional downward pressure on inflation through weaker-than-expected net exports and larger declines in import prices. Reflecting all of these factors, the Bank has decided to maintain the target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. This leaves considerable monetary stimulus in place, consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target in an environment of material excess supply in Canada. Any further reduction in monetary policy stimulus would need to be carefully considered. Information note: A full update of the Bank's outlook for the economy and inflation, including risks to the projection, will be published in the MPR on 13 April 2011. The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is 31 May 2011. REALTOR.ca mobile application for Blackberry released by the Canadian Real Estate Association With the late April release of the REALTOR.ca app for Blackberry®, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) now has apps for three of the most popular smartphones. REALTOR.ca is the most visited real estate website in Canada, listing on average some 350,000 properties at any time. "Consumers today use their smartphones in many ways, and this free application provides Blackberry users all the features and functionality of the REALTOR.ca website" said CREA President Gary Morse. REALTORS® across Canada are proud to be providing this service to house hunters." The free REALTOR.ca app is provided at no cost to consumers by Canada's 100,000 REALTORS® and more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations. The app provides users with the features and functionality of REALTOR.ca and takes full advantage of Blackberry device features, such as: Using the handheld's GPS technology: - Properties Near Me - get up-to-date property information, photos and driving directions;
- New Listings Near Me - recent listings in the area you're visiting;
- Open Houses Near Me - find open houses near your present location;
- My Agent - Contact either your agent(s), or the listing agent for more information about a specific property;
- Property Search - Search for houses and properties across Canada, and connect with REALTORS® to view, buy or sell a property;
- Personalized settings allowing the user to set default language, unit of measure, how properties are displayed, and search radius for "Near Me" searches;
- Interactive BING mapping is embedded to allow focus on specific neighbourhoods;
- Scheduled Open Houses can be added to the device's calendar.
"When considering one of life's biggest financial transactions, easily accessible, detailed information about homes and neighbourhoods, as well as access to REALTORS®, helps people make well-informed decisions" stated Morse. With the addition of the Blackberry app, REALTOR.ca is now available for three of the most popular handheld device operating systems, as versions for the Apple iPhone and the Windows Phone 7®were released last fall. An Android app will be released during the summer of 2011. CREA is one of Canada's largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 100,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations. CREA owns and operates the REALTOR.ca website, Canada's most visited real estate resource for property buyers and sellers. RE/MAX Sells More Real Estate!  | Orest Humeniuk
Sales Representative
416-619-7695
sold@residences.to |  | RE/MAX 2000 Realty Inc., Brokerage - Toronto, Ontario
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