Big markets suffer largest sales decline
May 27, 2020
Housing sales were slashed nearly in half between February and April across Canada, but it was bigger cities where the cuts were deepest, says according to a Zoocasa study released May 22.
In all, 20,630 Canadian homes changed hands in April compared to 38,161 in February, marking a 46 per cent decrease in sales. But Canada’s largest markets experienced a sales decline that outpaced the national average.
Greater Toronto had substantial declines in both average home price and sales. Sales in particular dropped 59 per cent, from February. Similarly, Hamilton-Burlington and Niagara also noted sales declines of 52 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively.
Montreal, one of the regions most affected by the pandemic, saw sales plunge a whopping 65 per cent between February and April from 5,338 to 1,890.
The average Montreal home price declined at a much slower rate, dropping $5,125 to $434,720 in April. In Quebec City, sales declined 64 per cent, but the average home price rose 1 per cent to $277,075.
Greater Vancouver had just 1,119 sales in April; 49 per cent lower than the number of sales in February, but benchmark home prices increased 2 per cent (or about $24,000) to $1.03 million.
Calgary, a market already experiencing a slowdown in recent years, saw a 49 per cent drop in sales from 1,521 in February to 776 in April. The average price fell 6 per cent, to $409,318, the lowest average price in the past five years.
