Canada January existing home sales +2.0% m/m vs +7.2% prior
Canadian housing inventory is very tight
- Prior was +7.2%
- Prices up 13.5% y/y in January
- Sales up 35.2% y/y
- Sales-to-new listings 90.7% -- highest on record by a significant margin. Old record was 81.5% in 2002.
The Canadian housing market is out of control. It's not just in Toronto and Vancouver like a few years ago, it's everywhere.
"The problem with this time of year is that the buyers and sellers that
will in time define the Canadian housing story of 2021 are mostly all
still waiting in the wings," said Shaun Cathcart, CREA's Senior
Economist. "It's the dead of winter and we're only just starting to get
the second wave of COVID under control. We're unlikely to see a rush of
listings until the weather and public heath situations improve, and we
won't see buyers until those homes come up for sale. The best case
scenario would be if we see a lot of sellers who were gun-shy to engage
in the market last year making a move this year. A big surge in supply
is what so many markets really need this year to get people into the
homes they want, and to keep prices from accelerating any more than they
already are."
