Canadian Home Sales Rise for a Fourth Straight Month

(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s housing market showed continued signs of stabilizing in August, with sales rising for a fourth straight month and prices easing.

The number of transactions rose 0.9 percent from July to 39,366 units, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday from Ottawa. Sales in Toronto, the nation’s biggest city, advanced 2.2 percent and rose 2.9 percent in Vancouver.

The housing market is recovering from steep sales declines early this year after the federal government imposed tougher mortgage lending rules and the central bank raised borrowing costs. Home sellers also seem to be lowering prices for homes, fueling demand.

Benchmark home prices fell by 0.6 percent on the month, the biggest decline since August 2017. That was driven by Vancouver, where prices dropped 1.4 percent, the biggest one-month fall since 2008. Toronto home prices were down 0.3 percent in August.

“Improving national home sales activity in recent months continues to obscure significant differences in regional trends for home sales and prices,” Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.