Market Insights
National Home Sales Report - Setting Records in February 2021
March 23, 2021
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The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) recently released its national statistics for home sales in February 2022. According to the association, February 2021 set another groundbreaking record.
Summary
- National home sales increased by 6.6% on a month-over-month (MoM) basis.
- The actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity went up by 39.2% year-over-year (YoY) basis.
- The number of newly listed properties surged by 15.7%, MoM.
- The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) increased by 3.3% MoM, while 17.3% YoY.
- The actual (not seasonally adjusted) average sale price jumped by 25% MoM.
National Home Sales
The national housing market kept its pace for home demands in February 2021. Over the Canadian MLS® Systems, home sales witnessed an increase of 6.6% between January 2021 and February 2021.
This is the third consecutive month where national home sales have seen growth, as evident from the image. And when compared with Feb’20, the national housing sales went up from 45,700 to 65,3030, showing a massive growth of 42.9%.
Actual Sales Activity
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity in Feb’21 recorded a gain of 39.2% compared to Feb’20. Whereas the month-over-month growth was 44.5%.
Since last February, there has been a considerable increase in the activity, recording over 13,000 transactions in Feb’21. For the past eight months, sales activity in the Canadian housing market witnessed considerable growth.
The market could have flourished more if there were enough supply of houses. Talking about the limitations the real estate market has been facing, Costa Poulopoulos, Chair of CREA, said:
The two big challenges that continue facing Canadian housing markets are the same ones we’ve been facing for months – COVID-19 and a lack of supply. With luck, potential sellers will feel more comfortable listing their homes in the short-term. As lockdowns continue easing across the country and the spring market begins to ramp up, we will remain vigilant in adhering to all the latest government and health officials’ directives to keep our clients safe. Now as always, REALTORS® remain the best source for information and guidance when negotiating the sale or purchase of a home,
Newly Listed Homes
After a month of short supply, Feb’21 returned a hefty growth of 15.7% to newly-listed homes. The sales-to-new listings ratios increased during the month, showing that everything is selling, and since the supply went up, so were the sales in the month.
Though the supply increased in the month, the sale-to-new listings ratio submerged to 84% in February from 91.2% in January.
Moreover, according to CREA, based on sales-to-new listing ratios, “only about 15% of all local markets were in a balanced market territory in February, measured as being within one standard deviation of their long-term average.”
By the end of February 2021, the national housing market had just about 1.8 months of inventory. And at the local level, Ontario had some marketplaces with less than a month of inventory in Feb’21.
MLS® Price Index
There was an increment in the Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) of 3.3% month-over-month basis in Feb’21. Whereas the year-over-year growth in the Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI (non-seasonally adjusted) was around 17.3%.
The most significant gains were seen in the Lakelands region of Ontario cottage country, Tillsonburg District and Woodstock-Ingersoll. The recorded gains were more than 35% YoY.
Whereas Barrie, Niagara, Bancroft and Area, Grey-Bruce Owen Sound, Kawartha Lakes, London & St. Thomas, North Bay, Northumberland Hills, Quinte & District, Simcoe & District and Southern Georgian Bay have seen a price gain of 30-35% YoY.
Hamilton, Guelph, Cambridge, Brantford, Huron Perth, Kitchener-Waterloo, Peterborough, and the Kawarthas, and Greater Moncton came next in line with a gain of 25-30% YoY.
The price gains on a year-over-year basis for other regions were:
National Average Sale Price
In Feb’21, the average sales price for all property types surged by 9.57% compared to the previous month. The average price in Feb’21 was $678,091, whereas it was $618,853 in Jan’21. Whereas the yearly gain was 25%, with an average home price of $542,484 in Feb’20.
The two regions with a massive surge in national average price were Greater Vancouver and the GTA - the most active and expensive housing markets. According to CREA, if we eliminate these two areas, the cut down in the national average home price would be “more than $150,000.”
Source: CREA
- Oakville-Milton and Ottawa: 20-25%
- Montreal: 18.8%
- Chilliwack: 16.1%
- Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, and Okanagan Valley, Winnipeg, the GTA, Mississauga, and Quebec: 10-15%
- Greater Vancouver, Victoria, Regina, and Saskatoon: 5-10%
- Calgary and Edmonton: 3.5%
- St. John’s: 2.6%
