It was a difficult year for home sales across Canada.
The Canadian Real Estate Association has released the numbers for December 2018, which saw sales decline for a fourth straight month to end the year.
It capped off the weakest annual sales year since 2012.
Compared to last year, December saw a major dip in sales with a 19% year-over-year drop in activity.
That decline, in part, was due to a rush of activity posted in December 2017 as home buyers rushed to purchase property ahead of the new federal mortgage stress test, which came into effect on Jan. 1, 2018.
“What a different a year makes,” said Barb Sukkau, CREA president. “Sales trends were pushed higher in December 2017 by home buyers rushing to purchase before the new federal mortgage stress-test took effect at the beginning on 2018.”
“Since then, the stress-test has weighed on sales to varying degrees in all Canadian housing markets and it will continue to do so this year.”
Markets that took the biggest hits when it came to sales over the past year include the Okanagan and Lower Mainland in B.C., Calgary, Edmonton, the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton-Burlington.
Gregory Klump, the CREA’s chief economist, says housing activity wills stay “soft” as households continue to adjust to the changes.
