Kitchen Table Real Estate:
Home sales and listings post record declines in April 2020
Joseph Kateb
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), one of Canada’s largest industry associations representing more than 130,000 Realtors working through 90 real estate boards and associations, has released statistics showing national home sales listings fell 56.8 per cent on a month-over-month basis in April and the number of newly listed properties decreased 55.7 per cent in from March to April 2020.
“Never in our recent history have we dealt with such widespread effects of a pandemic that limit everyone’s day to day life and have forced all of us to pivot and adjust to our new reality,” said Costa Poulopoulos, Chair of CREA. “Realtors across the country continue to comply with all government directives and advice to keep their clients safe. We’ve adopted new technologies allowing us to continue showing properties virtually as well as completing all necessary documents. Realtors remain your best source for information and guidance when negotiating the sale or purchase of a home in these unprecedented times,” continued Poulopoulos.
“Like so many other parts of normal daily life, a lot of buying and selling activity in housing markets across Canada has been put on pause,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “That said, preliminary data for May suggest things may have already started to pick up a bit for both sales and new listings, in line with evidence that new and existing virtual technology tools have been adopted by Realtors and their clients. These tools have allowed quite a bit of essential business to safely continue, and will likely remain key for some time.”
The good news is that mortgage rates are currently at historically low levels and are not expected to change any time soon. Home sales results for May are showing an improvement over April. No one is sure yet of the impact of the pandemic but June’s data will be sure to help clarify the situation we all find ourselves in.
Stay healthy, happy and well.
