{"id":5221,"date":"2018-04-13T11:27:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T15:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/?guid=40699f98dcb0569ec9fc087e96f28449"},"modified":"2018-04-13T11:27:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T15:27:55","slug":"march-home-sales-plunge-22-7-with-national-average-price-sliding-10-4-crea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/04\/13\/march-home-sales-plunge-22-7-with-national-average-price-sliding-10-4-crea\/","title":{"rendered":"March home sales plunge 22.7%, with national average price sliding 10.4%: CREA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pmYTPlayerContainer video-container\">\n<div id=\"pn_video_572628\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">( function() { pnLoadVideo( \"videos\", \"-KblXnsmmhE\", \"pn_video_572628\", \"\", \"\", [] ); } )();<\/script><br \/>\nThe number of Canadian homes sold in March plunged 23 per cent and the national average price was down 10 per cent from the same month last year amid double-digit plunges in most housing markets across the country, according to the latest monthly sales data released Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Real Estate Association said the level of sales activity marked a four-year low for the month of March and was seven per cent below the 10-year average. Still, national home sales were up from the previous month by 1.3 per cent, according to CREA\u2019s latest statistics.<\/p>\n<p>The drop in home sales comes after several government policy measures were implemented to cool the country\u2019s hot housing market. Last March, national home sales activity had reached an all-time record for that month, according to CREA.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/real-estate\/home-prices-continue-to-climb-in-b-c-despite-dramatic-sales-decline-bcrea\">B.C. home prices continue to climb as sales plummet on \u2018burdensome\u2019 mortgage rules<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/real-estate\/what-it-was-like-to-get-caught-in-torontos-record-housing-slump\">What it was like to get caught in Toronto\u2019s swift and brutal housing plunge<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/news\/economy\/dr-debt-warns-canadians-to-get-financial-houses-in-order\">Canadians warned to climb out of debt before it\u2019s too late, as threat of cooling housing markets looms<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Recent changes to mortgage regulations known as B-20 \u2014 which make it harder for homebuyers to qualify for uninsured mortgages \u2014 are fuelling demand for lower-priced homes, while shrinking the pool of qualified buyers for higher-priced homes, said Gregory Klump, CREA\u2019s chief economist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven their limited supply, the shift of demand into lower price segments is causing those sale prices to climb,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cAs a result, &#8216;affordably priced&#8217; homes are becoming less affordable while mortgage financing for higher priced homes remains out of reach of many aspiring move-up home buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apartment units posted the largest year-on-year price gains in March, up 17.8 per cent, followed by townhouse\/row units at 9.4 per cent. One-storey single family homes saw price gains in March of just 1.3 per cent, and two-storey single family home prices were down two per cent from a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>As of Jan. 1, homebuyers with a down payment larger than 20 per cent seeking a mortgage from a federally regulated lender are now subject to a financial stress test. These borrowers now have to prove that they can service their uninsured mortgage at a qualifying rate of the greater of the contractual mortgage rate plus two percentage point or the five-year benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The new policy reduces the maximum amount buyers will be able to borrow to buy a home. An existing stress test already requires those with insured mortgages to qualify at the Bank of Canada benchmark five-year mortgage rule.<\/p>\n<p>In turn, home sales activity was pulled forward to the end of 2017 as home buyers tried to lock in a mortgage before the new rules took effect.<\/p>\n<p>Sales in the first quarter slid to their lowest quarterly level since the first three months of 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the national average price for all types of residential property slipped to about $491,000, down 10.4 per cent from March of last year \u2014 with the Vancouver and Toronto markets causing most of the drag.<\/p>\n<p>Excluding Canada\u2019s two most expensive real estate markets, the national average price would be $383,000 \u2014 a decline of two per cent from March 2017.<\/p>\n<p>March marked the third consecutive double-digit decline compared with the comparable month last year, when prices in the Greater Toronto Area soared to record highs.<\/p>\n<p>CREA said activity was below year-ago levels in more than 80 per cent of all local markets, in all major urban centres except for Montreal and Ottawa, with the vast majority of year-over-year declines well into double digits.<\/p>\n<p>Markets are likely to remain under pressure from the recent B-20 regulations, higher mortgage rates, and provincial regulations in some regions, TD\u2019s senior economist Michael Dolega said in a research note.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, lower-priced markets where affordability is good should generally outperform in the current environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The national average price for all types of residential property was about $491,000, with the Vancouver and Toronto markets causing most of the drag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}