Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show national home sales continued to edge higher in November 2019.

Highlights:

• National home sales rose 0.6% month-over-month (m-o-m) basis in November.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 11.3% year-over-year (y-o-y).
• The number of newly listed properties dropped by 2.7% m-o-m.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) advanced by 0.8% m-o-m and 2.6% y-o-y.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price climbed 8.4% y-o-y.

Home sales recorded via Canadian MLS® Systems inched up by 0.6%...

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 6,616 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in November, an increase of 27.5 per cent from the same month last year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was $746,939, an increase of 5.5 per cent from November 2018. Total sales dollar volume was $4.94 billion, a 34.4 per cent increase from the same month last year.

“After several months of strong gains, home sales are now firming around long-run averages,” said BCREA Chief Economist Brendon Ogmundson....

The trend in housing starts was 219,047 units in November 2019, compared to 218,253 units in October 2019, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts. 

“The national trend in housing starts was essentially unchanged in November, reflecting slight increases in the national trends of both multi-family and single-detached starts" said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Vancouver saw a significant decline in the trend of multi-unit starts for...

After a quieter first half of 2019, home buyer activity has returned to more historically typical levels in Metro Vancouver*.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that residential home sales in the region totalled 2,498 in November 2019, a 55.3 per cent increase from the 1,608 sales recorded in November 2018, and a 12.6 per cent decline from the 2,858 homes sold in October 2019.

Last month’s sales were four per cent above the 10-year November sales average.

“We started to see more home buyer confidence in the summer and this trend continues today,” says Ashley...

We live in our homes very differently then when we try to sell them. Ensuring your home appeals to the broadest of audiences, is critical in getting the maximum dollar value possible. We have all walked into a show home and fallen in love. Ever wonder why? One reason is that developers spend a great deal of time and effort to ensure the home shows well. That is the same sense we want to convey to a buyer when they walk into your home, “Wow this place shows so well!”

So how do we do that? Decluttering and depersonalizing goes a long way to achieve this goal. Decluttering helps make the...