On June 7th, the Bank of Canada decided to increase the overnight rate by 1/4 a percent, the first change in rate since the increase in January. After January’s announcement, the Bank of Canada said they were going to stay put for a number of months. Well, it did and this added confidence to the market and we saw increases in both average sale price and sales. With the latest announcement, did the real estate market get shaken up? Let’s compare the stats from May to June.
New listings were relatively the same with just a 4.4% increase compared to May. So we are looking at pretty much the same sample size. However, sales in June were 7,481, a 17% decrease compared to May, and the average price also decreased. In May, the average sale price was $1.196M and in June it was $1.182M….this was just a slight decrease of 1.2% but the trend this year was that average prices were increasing month over month. Although the market has quieted somewhat, there are still great opportunities for both buyers and sellers and a slight decrease in price is nothing to be alarmed with. Looking forward, it will be interesting to see if the Bank of Canada decided to increase rates again on the 12th or if they decided to stay put as inflation had a decrease of 1%…what we do know, whatever the decision will be, expect the market to react accordingly