According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC), Canada’s housing regulator, Canada’s housing market is going to cool in 2016 and 2017. Both new home construction starts and resale homes sales (in some markets) will slow down.
CMHC expects existing home sales to decline by three per cent in 2016 but by less than one per cent in 2017. New home construction will drop by 4.7 per cent in 2016 and another 2.5 per cent in 2017 as builders try to sell off their excess inventory.
Across Canada, prices are up in 2015 by an astounding 7.2%. The average price is $437,000. This is much higher than originally predicted.
In Kitchener Waterloo, our market in 2015 continues to grow steadily. The average home price here is about $348,000 ($387,000 for a single family home, $247,000 for a condo). At the end of the third quarter, there were 4,393 homes sold through our local board, which is the highest number since 2008, seven years ago.
Lower gas prices, higher export numbers and historically low interest rates have led to sustaining Canada’s vibrant residential real estate market, especially in Ontario and BC.
Besides Waterloo Region’s, diverse and growing local economy, as Toronto home prices continue to rise, more and more first-time home buyers and investors look to the region for their housing needs. Things are solid here and are predicted to stay that way for the coming years.
Also, as the tracks for our new LRT are laid, there is a lot of excitement building in Kitchener Waterloo about our future.
Look at the price of new houses! (click to enlarge)
