Real estate recovery expected to be tepid
by Maximillian on 02/07/09 at 1:53 pm
The worst of Canada’s housing market woes appear to be past but the sector’s rebound will be tenuous as a rise in mortgage rates and high unemployment limit the recovery in prices and sales.
Property experts say first-time buyers and Bank of Canada rate cuts have helped restore stability to a market that slumped from late 2008 to early this year, when the worst leg of the global financial crisis battered consumer confidence.
“We should be less fearful than we were six months ago, but I don’t think we should be exuberant yet. The resale markets in Canada are very strong. May numbers were pretty good, and June numbers will be even better,” said Will Dunning, an economic consultant who specializes in the housing market.
“But by July and into the fall there will be an offset of considerably slower activity. I don’t think it’s likely to go off a cliff. It’ll depend on what happens in employment and the broader economy, and how that affects confidence.”
Recent data suggest Canada’s residential property market, which weathered the financial crisis much better than its hard-hit U.S. counterpart, has been thawing for several months.
The latest Canadian Real Estate Association data shows May resale home prices rose 0.4 per cent to $319,757, topping the previous record set a year earlier. It was the first year-over-year increase since May last year. And sales activity climbed for a fourth straight month.
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