Montreal MLS Barometer: Residential Market

The complete report on Montreal Market for the fist quarter 2009 is now available for download. This new report, now called the “Montreal Barometer”, has a detailed description of each section of Montreal, with 38 pages of up to date information on prices, sales, and average days on the market.

If you want to be informed on your neighbourhoods market analysis, this is a good document to have. Although a few areas don’t have exact information, it will still give you an idea of how much activity your area has in terms of real estate.

Here is the link to the document online, it take a little while to view due to its size. Or you can download it here.

Montreal Real Estate Prices Up, Sales Down

Last month’s MLS® residential sales in the Montréal Metropolitan Area decreased by 31 per cent compared to November 2007.
A 6% decrease in year-to-date sales compared to the same period last year, according to the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board (GMREB). While sales have decreased, single-family home median prices are up by 6% year-to-date.

“Montréal’s real estate market has done quite well this year especially when you consider that prices are up and we’re comparing today’s sales with 2007, the year that broke all sales records,” said Michel Beauséjour, FCA, GMREB’s Chief Executive Officer. “All being said and done, Montreal’s market continues to be a good investment, particularly when comparisons are made with other major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver where sales of single-family homes have dropped by as much as 37 per cent year-to-date, whereas we’re only at a decrease of 9 per cent,” he said.

Source: CIGM

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Financial Post reports: Value of new homes goes up

At last, the housing market starts to look a lot better. This article was published by the Financial Post, some of the interesting parts as follow:

The value of new homes in Canada barely grew in June, with many regions posting annual declines once adjusted for inflation, new figures show. But despite forecasts for more soft readings ahead, economists say Canadians are not expected to experience a major U. S.-style correction because prices are still historically high.

(..) It was the slowest yearly rate of growth since March, 2002, and barely outpaced headline inflation, which rose to 3.1% in June.

Growth has slowed since peaking at the unsustainable pace of 12.1% in August, 2006. However, it still averaged a high 7.8% in 2007.(..)

(..) Growth in Toronto picked up slightly to 3.8% compared with 2.5% a year earlier, while in Montreal, prices rose by 5.6%, up from 3.9% in June, 2007.

If you have been following the Canadian Market trends, you probably realized by now that even with the slight increases of sales (quarterly), we are still facing a very volatile market. Checking back with previous Market News, in April we had a report from the Canadian Housing Corporation giving us the details a low market. Canadian Housing was down by 16.3% – with the exceptions of British Columbia.

For those who are wondering when is the best time to put your home for sale, this is one of those times we all can say: We just don’t know.

But, we keep on watching the trends, and take it from there.

Montréal Resale Market Trends

According to the MLS® system data, the resale market in the Montréal Metropolitan Area is bucking the trend in comparison with other large Canadian cities, says the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board’s (GMREB). In June 2008, residential transactions were on the rise by 2%, which brings the decrease of sales since the beginning of the year to only 3%.

“Unlike the general trend elsewhere in Canada, the resale market in the Montréal Metropolitan Area is doing well,” says Michel Beauséjour, FCA, Chief Executive Officer of the GMREB. “Other large Canadian cities are seeing slower activity, with sales in Toronto decreasing by 14% since the beginning of the year, by 32% in Calgary and by 20% in Vancouver.”

For the Montréal Metropolitan Area, 25,519 transactions were recorded in the MLS® system during the first six months of 2008, a decrease of 3% compared to the 26,430 sales during the same period last year.

“Condominiums go against the tide recorded since the start of 2008 with a cumulative increase of sales of 7% compared to the first six months of 2007, while single-family homes show an equal decrease of 7%,” says Michel Beauséjour.

MLS® Residential Statistics Montréal Metropolitan Area – January to June 2008
		Variation
Active listings New listings Total sales Single-family Condominiums Plex (2 to 5 dwellings) Volume of sales Median price Single-family Condominiums Plex (2 to 5 dwellings)	24,771 42,791 25,519 15,232 7,330 2,693 $6,506,683,671 $225,000 $183,000 $336,950	+2 % +6 % -3 % -7 % +7 % -6 % +1 % +6 % +3 % +7 %

Source: The Montreal Real Estate Board

Canadians consider buying a condo purely for investment purposes

Slightly more than one-third of Torontonians (34%) would consider owning a condo solely for investment purposes rather than as their primary residence. 8% have already made this kind of investment.

By comparison, more than half (52%) of Vancouverites say they would buy a condo strictly as an investment, yet only 5% have actually done so. Among Montrealers, only 3% say they already own an investment condo.

Across Canada, condo popularity is steadily increasing. Almost half of urban Canadians (48%) indicate they would consider buying a condo as their primary residence, up from 39% in 2007.

These findings are part of the 2008 TD Canada Trust Condo Poll. Conducted by Angus Reid Strategies between March 20 and 25, the poll looks at the attitudes of urban Canadians towards condo ownership. A total of 1200 online interviews were conducted with Angus Reid Forum panelists who indicated they
are likely to consider purchasing a condominium as a primary residence. The sample consisted of 200 interviews in each of Greater Vancouver, Calgary, the Greater Toronto Area, the Montreal Metropolitan Community, Halifax and Ottawa.

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