Montreal Real Estate Blog » Current Market

December 2011: Year Ends with More Sales

Deya Bautista — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:03:49 +0000

December marks the 7th consecutive monthly increase in existing-home sales. Compared to sales from December 2010, in 2011 there were 7% more sales according to the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB).

From all the areas that had increases; Vaudreuil-Soulanges (+39%), North Shore (+28%), Laval (+9%) and the South Shore (+2%). Only the Island of Montréal had a decrease in sales (-4%).

Sales increased for all property categories.

Single-family homes 8%
Condominiums 6% and
Plexes 3%.

In terms of prices…

Single-family homes had a decrease in median price (-1%) to reach $260,000.
The median price of condominiums increased by 2% to reach $222,000,
Median price of Plexes went up by 5%, reaching $405,950.

In a nutshell, The Island of Montreal had more listings and less sales in December 2011.

Keeping track of the Market? Subscribe to the Montreal Real Estate Blog for free updates!

Join our new Market Report Newsletter, and get notified of the latest change in prices.

Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/

How’s the Market? Montreal Sales and Prices November 2011

Deya Bautista — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:40:41 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKp12Mv-oFs

The november numbers are out already!

This time from the Montreal Real Estate Board. We had 3% more sales than in Nov 2010.
All property types had sales increase and prices went up by 4%.

Watch the video to get the details. I’m still working on the transcript!
If you’re not able to watch the video from your email, here is the permalink:

http://montrealrealestateblog.com/market-stats-nov2011/

Keeping track of the Market? Subscribe to the Montreal Real Estate Blog for free updates!

Join our new Market Report Newsletter, and get notified of the latest change in prices.

Report says: Canada’s housing bubble close to bursting

Deya Bautista — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:17:06 +0000

A report by Capital Economic says Canada’s housing bubble is now close to bursting as housing valuations have “lost touch with fundamentals” and household debt is at a record high.

House prices could fall by as much as 25 per cent over the next three years.

“House prices have been growing rapidly for nearly a decade now and it has reached the point where housing is so overvalued relative to incomes that a downward correction seems unavoidable,” says Capital Economics.

The report says the downturn in the housing sector will severely constrain economic growth over the next couple of years as consumption expands at a more “muted” pace and housing investment “shrinks.”

“We also anticipate that the end of the housing boom will lead to a marked decline in housing-related activity and employment,” it says.

Capital Economics says signs of over-building are evident as unoccupied housing units are at historically high levels, similar to 1994-95 when housing construction was last mired in a slump.

“Another sign of over-building, or perhaps over-consumption, is the sharp increases in the home ownership rate over the last 10 years,” it says. “This run-up has coincided with a housing price boom fuelled by rising financial leverage.

“Our concern is that these excesses will eventually lead to a house price correction, which would greatly impact household wealth, consumer confidence and the economic recovery.”

Source: Montreal Gazette

… Good thing that here in Quebec the market remains stable. Not up, not down. Just stable.

How’s the Market? Canadian Housing Market Stabilizing in 2011

Deya Bautista — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:05:29 +0000

News on the national real estate market starts and sales can now be found at the CMHC’s website. According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) second quarter Housing Market Outlook, Canada Edition, we are doing just fine.

Expect a moderation and a slight increase on the home prices this year:

“The recent increase in the average MLS^® price reflected strong sales in Vancouver’s property resale market. For the remainder of 2011, we expect the average MLS^® price to moderate. Nevertheless, the average MLS^® price will experience an overall increase this year. As the existing home market moves to more balanced markets in 2012, growth in the average MLS^®price in 2012 is expected to be more modest than in 2011.”

So, that’s great news for the country. Let’s check out now how our local market is doing. Stay tuned.

News, Home Prices Drops and Readers Bite Back

Deya Bautista — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:00:09 +0000

You can always count on the media and the “Market experts” to make an issue out of something small, like the 0.1% decrease the new home prices in July.

CTV News [Edmonton] reports: “The price of new homes fell 0.1 per cent in July after a 0.1 per cent increase in June — the first drop in more than a year, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report.”

So Statistics Canada comes out with a report that shows a 0.01% price decrease, while another report by the CHMC mentions: “housing starts slipped three per cent in August“.

If I were to read this without taking in consideration the latest market updates for Montreal, I would think our city is also suffering from the same malady as the rest of the Canadian cities involved in this price-drop ordeal. But it just happens that we recently got the numbers from the previous month’s sales and price changes. Sure it wasn’t from the CMHC and Statistics Canada but from a local source like the Montreal Real Estate Board, and even if we haven’t received the news on the August market performance yet, we have a good price increase during the previous summer months.

Something the so-called market experts forget to consider is that Summer Months are usually slower than the rest of the seasons. People take vacations, enjoy time with their families and the last thing on most of their priority list is to buy or get involved with real estate transactions. This is a cyclical industry, and summer is the slowest point of the yearly cycle.

Yet the media is spreading the panic without shame. But readers are biting back!
My favorites are from the CTV News comments, here are a couple:

Dean in Abby says:
I can’t wait for the “experts” to come out with some doom and gloom philosophy about supply and demand. Oh my god, we must be heading into a dreaded recession again! Come on experts, give us your best. We can take your negativity and your 2.5 minutes in the sun.

Chris in Ottawa says:
Thank you, media, for making an issue out of 0.1 % that is really only an impact in 1/2 dozen cities throughout the whole country. Let’s continue to try to scare Canadians into another downturn. Come on… enough already

David says:
Wow! 0.1%! The sky is falling. Can you imagine the margin of error in all the statistics of home sales when the same homes don’t sell every month. A home in the same neighbourhood next to the one that sold last month can vary by a few hundred thousand. So is it a price reduction or just a different price? 0.1% indeed.

and this one has to be my favorite of all:

Honest Ed says:
Do these “experts” actually ever get out to check what they say? I read the article today, and over the radio (in Montreal) the same story about Montreal housing was mentioned. House construction wad down from last year, and fewer homes were being sold. As I was driving home, guess what? Within a 5 KM distance from my house, there were 3 excavators excavating holes in the ground, and 2 signs for preliminary condo selling. In my area of town (Western Montreal), a house sells within 2-4 weeks after having being listed.

So where do these experts get their data? And do they ever get out form their offices, or are they simply reading whatever is placed on the Net?

Aside from the fact that the article from my perspective seems faulted, I’m getting tired of experts and their “expert” opinions which seem to be projected more as fact than as opinion.

Bubble or no Bubble? That is the question.

Deya Bautista — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:00:02 +0000

Ever since last week, there has been a lot of talk (in the media) of a real estate bubble about to happen in Canada. Many articles were written about the markets that are anticipated to be affected. The gazette began the topic on August 30 with Housing Bubble: An accident about to happen. Followed by the list of cities whose market are in danger of a bubble burst.

I haven’t really gotten involved with the bubble subject and I though of letting the whole thing pass without writing about it, until the heat would cool down a bit. It can be nerve wrecking to try and stay subjective when so many papers are writing about the same thing: HOUSING BUBBLE AHEAD.

Here we go again. Media frenzy, nervous sellers, confused buyers, high mortgage rates. 2007 all over again.

Now, the conference board of Canada is saying: “The housing market is taking a breather, but it’s not in free fall”, and that the main reason for its recent boom was due to the low interest rates over the past year.

What are your thoughts on this?

GMREB Video: Condo Sales Increases in January 2010

Deya Bautista — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:25:33 +0000

Last month, just as the month before that, there was another record breaking sales for the condo market. The new video of the GMREB explains the numbers as well as the so called “Real Estate Bubble” that people are talking about.

Michel Beauséjour, the CEO of the GMREB, clarifies the rumors about another real estate bubble by defining what the bubble means.

” (A bubble) Is supported by massive especulation in the market, which means that people are just buying houses or condominiums to resell it very quickly after and make money. We have no evidence that this is happening in the market right now. ”
“The condominium market is supported by first time buyer.”

Based on a survey in 2010, 43% of those first time buyers are renters

RSS readers: If you are not able to view this video, click on this link