In June, 8.7% more homes were sold than in May. It’s the fifth straight month of increases — a 17.9% increase over June 2008.

“This rebound reflects the releasing of a pent-up demand by buyers who moved to the sidelines towards the end of last year,” said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump.

“Now there are signs the worst of the recession may be behind us, those people are emerging.”

The bounce back was strongest in British Columbia, where 39.8% more homes were sold in June this over the same month last year. According to the CREA report, Ontario was up 15.7%, Quebec 9.8%, Alberta 22.2%, Saskatchewan 25.2% and Manitoba 0.2%.

This surge in home buying came despite a decision by Canada’s five big banks last month to raise five-year fixed mortgage rates 40 basis points from 5.45% to 5.85%.

The decision was made despite the Bank of Canada’s efforts to keep borrowing low by pledging to hold interest rates at the historic low of 0.25% until the middle of 2010.

Mary Webb, a senior economist with Scotiabank, says the low long-term interest rates in the spring were a reflection of a global economy with almost no signs of growth and that was bound to change.

“Now we’re looking for a recovery, and not just in Canada but globally, and we’re seeing it already in China and we expect growth to strengthen later this year and early next,” Webb said.

With more people borrowing, banks are being forced to pay more to borrow the money they lend to home buyers, and that drives up long-term interest rates, she said.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/07/15/10136046-sun.html

brought by Alexander Moishe, Canadian Funding Corp CEO

Sales rose 8.7 percent to 41,304 homes from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Canadian Real Estate Association said today in a statement from Ottawa. Average home prices rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier and the inventory of unsold homes fell to its lowest since August 2007.

Recent data on Canada’s housing market suggest the Bank of Canada’s efforts to stimulate spending with interest rate cuts are helping fuel demand for homes and may be reversing a slump in home construction. The Bank of Canada, which forecast that housing will shed 1.1 percentage points from growth in 2009, has cut its benchmark lending rate to a record 0.25 percent.

“Obviously there is one segment of society that doesn’t believe this will be a lengthy downturn,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

New home sales jumped a record 32 percent during the second quarter to 114,173 units, the realtor group said. The number of months needed to sell current inventories fell to 4.2 in June, the lowest level in more than two years.

Agents and Brokers

Output of real estate agents and brokers was up 8.2 percent in April, Statistics Canada said June 30. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said July 9 that new home construction rose for a second month in June, while the total value of permits issued by municipalities jumped 15 percent in May.

One explanation for the pick-up in the real estate market, Porter said, may be that the decline earlier this year was “extreme” and created pent-up demand for homes. Existing home sales fell in January to their lowest since 2000.

“I can’t help but wonder whether these gains are sustainable,” Porter said.

The country also may be benefiting from a financial system that has largely escaped bad-asset problems plaguing other countries.

“The positive impact of low interest rates on mortgage demand is clearly much more powerful in Canada than in the U.S.,” Derek Holt, an economist at Scotia Capital in Toronto, said in a note to investors.

http://montrealhypotheque.blogspot.com/2009/07/june-home-sales-rise-87.html

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian Funding Corp CEO

RBC Economics says home affordability recorded some of the biggest quarterly improvements on record in the first quarter. Senior economist Robert Hogue says with market turmoil decreasing and credit flows increasing, resale activity has “rallied impressively.”

He says what is most impressive is how widespread this rebound has been, “with all major cities in Canada experiencing a revival.”

Declining costs of home ownership during the last year were driven by significant cuts in mortgage rates.

In the first quarter, says RBC, monthly payments on a typical detached bungalow fell by close to 17 per cent from a year earlier.

RBC says the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to own a home improved across all housing segments.

It says the benchmark detached bungalow moved to 39.4 per cent, the standard townhouse to 31.9 per cent, the standard condo to 27.1 per cent and the standard two-storey home to 44.7 per cent respectively.

RBC’s affordability measure for detached bungalows in the largest cities were 62.6 per cent in Vancouver, 45.9 per cent in Toronto, 39.1 per cent in Ottawa, 36.5 per cent in Montreal and 35.1 pr cent in Calgary.

“Housing markets generally appear to be on the mend in Canada but the road to full recovery still has obstacles,” added Hogue.

He added that further improvement in affordability will depend on greater gains in family income.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iE0WgUzhh7xwb3MGbU8RjqZkWe_A

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, Canadian Funding Corp CEO

“Declining costs of home ownership during the last year were driven by significant cuts in mortgage rates along with the federal government taking an active role in supporting the mortgage securities market,” RBC said. “In the first quarter, monthly payments on a typical detached bungalow in Canada had decreased by close to 17 per cent from a year earlier.”

The average cost to own a bungalow in this year’s first quarter was $1,350 a month, down from $1,520 in 2008’s fourth quarter and $1,620 in last year’s first quarter.

RBC’s affordability index — the percentage of pre-tax monthly household income needed to maintain a home, including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes — improved across all housing segments in Canada.

The average affordability for a bungalow in the first quarter was 39.4 per cent, down four points from 2008’s fourth quarter. It was 44.7 per cent for a standard two-storey (down five points), and 27.1 per cent for a condominium (down 2.8 points).

The average cost of maintaining a detached bungalow in Vancouver was 62.6 per cent of household income during the first quarter, while in Toronto it was 45.9 per cent, RBC said. Ottawa affordability was 39.1 per cent, Montreal 36.5 per cent, Calgary 35.1 per cent, and Edmonton 34 per cent.

From a provincial standpoint, RBC said housing affordability in British Columbia saw its biggest improvements since 1991, with the percentage of income required for various housing types dropping between 3.4 and 7.4 percentage points during the quarter. In Ontario, RBC said housing sales activity has returned to levels seen in mid-2008, largely as a result of improved affordability.

“With the turmoil in financial markets partially subsiding and the flow of credit increasing, home resale activity has rallied impressively since the late winter,” said Robert Hogue, RBC’s senior economist. “What’s most impressive is how widespread this rebound has been, with all major cities in Canada experiencing a revival.

“”With property values stabilizing and the effect of the steep drop in mortgage rates likely behind us, further improvement in affordability will depend on greater gains in family income,” Hogue added. “Those gains will be dictated by the speed of the economic recovery expected during the second half of this year.”

The RBC’s assessment follows a separate report this week from real estate agency Royal LePage that said improved housing-market conditions in this year’s second quarter points to a better overall performance in 2009 than previously anticipated.

Also, a number of local markets saw sharp spikes in sales last month, including Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton, where new sales records were set for June.

Percentage of gross income required to own a standard bungalow in first quarter of 2009 (change from previous quarter):

British Columbia 59.0 (-6.0)

Alberta 33.2 (-4.6)

Saskatchewan 42.0 (-3.3)

Manitoba 35.3 (-2.9)

Ontario 38.6 (-4.2)

Quebec 32.3 (-2.5)

Atlantic 31.3 (-2.9)

Canada 39.4 (-4.0)

Source: RBC Economics

http://www.canada.com/Business/Home+ownership+getting+more+affordable/1771375/story.html

brought by Moishe Alexaneder, CFC Canadian Funding Corp CEO

“Total urban starts for the month of May were down from last year’s monthly level due to an overall decrease in both single and multiple starts in provincial urban centres,” said Claude Gautreau, CMHC’s senior market analyst for New Brunswick. Single starts in provincial urban centres were down 38 per cent to 138 units in May. Year-to-date, single starts were down by 39 per cent to 292 units.

Meanwhile, in New Brunswick’s urban centres, a total of 196 multiple starts were recorded in May of 2009, down from 258 units during the same month last year. The year-to-date decline in multiple starts was moderate at 6.7 per cent at the end of May. “Increased activity in both Saint John and Fredericton through the first five months of 2009 has bolstered overall multiple starts in provincial urban centres,” continued Gautreau.

In urban centres across Canada, total housing starts in May declined by 46 per cent, down to 10,368 compared to last year’s total of 19,222. Single-detached starts decreased 42 per cent to 4,939 units, while multiple unit starts were down 49 per cent from 10,654 units last year to 5,429 units this year. In the Atlantic region, 760 new units were started in May 2009 compared to 1,094 units during the same period in 2008.

As Canada’s national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 60 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable, and affordable homes – homes that will continue to create vibrant and healthy communities and cities across the country.

—————————————-
(1) Figures for the most recent month are preliminary and subject to
revisions due to corrections or updates from quarterly enumeration or
sampling results.

————————————————————————-
PRELIMINARY URBAN MONTHLY HOUSING STARTS
NEW BRUNSWICK SUMMARY
————————————————————————-
2009 2008 YEAR-TO-DATE
———— % Change ————– % Change
MAY MAY 2009 2008
————————————————————————-
ALL URBAN CENTRES WITH POPULATIONS GREATER THAN 50,000
————————————————————————-
SAINT JOHN CMA
Single 40 57 -29.8% 103 164 -37.2%
Multiple 60 20 (XX) 192 138 39.1%
TOTAL 100 77 29.9% 295 302 -2.3%
————————————————————————-
MONCTON CMA
Single 44 96 -54.2% 76 155 -51.0%
Multiple 114 165 -30.9% 170 248 -31.5%
TOTAL 158 261 -39.5% 246 403 -39.0%
————————————————————————-
FREDERICTON CA
Single 29 47 -38.3% 70 117 -40.2%
Multiple 22 66 -66.7% 95 72 31.9%
TOTAL 51 113 -54.9% 165 189 -12.7%
————————————————————————-
ALL URBAN CENTRES WITH POPULATION GREATER THAN 10,000(*)
————————————————————————-
ALL CENTRES
Single 138 223 -38.1% 292 477 -38.8%
Multiple 196 258 -24.0% 457 490 -6.7%
TOTAL 334 481 -30.6% 749 967 -22.5%
————————————————————————-
Figures for the most recent month are preliminary and subject to
revisions due to corrections or updates from quarterly enumeration or
sampling results.

(*) Includes all centres with a total population of more than 10,000
(Saint John CMA, Moncton CA, Fredericton CA, Bathurst CA,
Campbellton CA, Edmundston CA, and Miramichi City).

(XX) Indicates changes in excess of 100% which are not reported due to
volatility resulting from small absolute numbers.

http://www.dailycommercialnews.com/nw/12359/re

Report provided to the blog by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO

Updated Wed. Apr. 8 2009 6:40 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A recession-cooled Canadian real estate market saw falling housing prices during the first quarter of the year, though the declines were not as steep as expected.

A quarterly house price survey, released Wednesday by Royal LePage Real Estate Services, showed national price declines in several major housing types compared to the same quarter in 2008.

According to the survey numbers:

* The price of a standard two-storey home dropped 6.5 per cent
* The price of a detached bungalow fell 6.1 per cent
* The price of a standard condominium declined by 4 per cent

Royal LePage Real Estate Services President Phil Soper said the data shows the hottest housing market to be in St. John’s, where prices for standard two-storey homes rose 15 per cent year over year.

“Consumer confidence drives a lot of activity in the housing market and they remain a very confident lot, and there’s still a supply shortage of homes for sale there,” he told CTV’s Canada AM.

Soper said other markets in Atlantic Canada also performed steadily, due in part to the region’s affordable housing prices and to an increasingly diverse regional economy.

“Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, N.B., are all healthy markets,” he said.

“The economies have really diversified over the last 15 years and it’s showing up in terms of steadier prices.”

In Ontario and Quebec, Royal LePage said the markets “held steady” with some small gains and declines. But overall, Ontario typically saw “mid to low single digit declines” in its housing prices, the survey said.

The survey said that Western provinces saw “significant changes” in real estate prices, with double-digit declines in many areas. Manitoba was the lone major exception to this trend.

The survey predicted that B.C. and Alberta may be among the first areas in Canada to see pricing gains because those provinces experienced market corrections prior to the brunt of the economic crisis.

Soper said the first quarter of 2009 was, overall, one of the worst-performing sales periods for real estate in recent memory.

But he said Canadian realtors have high hopes for an improvement in the national market this spring.

“There is a remarkable uptick in March in buying activity in the marketplace, compared to November, December, January, February, (which) were easily the worst four months in the last decade in terms of housing market activity,” he said.

Out west, the declines were particularly severe, Soper said.

“In Vancouver, the activity level in the province was down by half,” Soper said.

“Fifty per cent of the transactions just disappeared over those four months. So, now we’re only down 25 per cent in March, that’s a remarkable turnaround in one month.”

The survey also said that condominiums have become “increasingly accessible” for young homeowners across Canada, due to a combination of low lending rates and falling prices during the recession.

In the first quarter of 2009, the average price of a standard Canadian condominium was $232, 877 — a mid-point price on a scale that ranged from $120,000 in Charlottetown to $431,500 in Vancouver.

http://www.johnhutton.ca/?p=84

brought to the blog by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO