Canadian home sales fall back in October

National home sales declined by 3.2% from September to October, shows a report from the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The number of newly-listed homes also declined by 0.8% from September to October. But the Canadian housing market remains in balanced territory, it adds.

Read: Canada’s homes too expensive

“October’s lower activity provides early evidence confirming that sales in the later summer and early fall were boosted by homebuyers with pre-approved mortgages at lower than current interest rates jumping into the market before their preapprovals expired,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist.

Now that the Fed and the Bank of Canada have indicated interest rates won’t change, homebuyers are less pressured to purchase.

Read: U.S. home prices stable

Sales were down in most local markets, including greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, greater Toronto, Hamilton-Burlington, and Montreal. The monthly decline in activity among these markets offset increased activity in a handful of less-active major urban centres.

October’s seasonally adjusted sales figure stood slightly above (0.9%) the average for monthly sales over the past 10 years.

So far this year, 402,299 homes have been sold in Canada. That stands just 0.2% below levels recorded in the first 10 months of 2012.

Read: U.S. mortgage defaults decline

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.