Canadian home sales are expected to rebound this spring, with B.C. forecast to see the largest year-over-year increase and contribute the most to national sales activity.

The province is expected to see an 8.3 per cent increase in sales activity, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, compared with a plus or minus three per cent increase in activity across the other provinces in 2014.

The national average home price is expected to rise by 3.8 per cent to $397,000 this year, with similar sized gains in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

National resale housing activity has started slowly this year, partly because of stronger levels of activity recorded last summer and fall when buyers with pre-approved mortgage financing advanced home purchases before their lower pre-approved rates expired.

Home sales are expected to trend higher heading into the spring and be boosted over the second half of the year with a “widely anticipated pick-up in Canadian economic growth.” Sales are forecast to reach 463,700 units in 2014, up 1.3 per cent from a year earlier.

In 2015, national activity is forecast to edge up a further 1.2 per cent to 469,400 units. Affordability is expected to restrain activity in Canada’s most expensive markets, with annual sales forecast to decline marginally in B.C.

Source: Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 at 8:51 am and is filed under BC real estate news, Canada real estate news, Metro Vancouver real estate, Vancouver real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.