Canadian real estate sales slip

Sales in Canada’s red-hot real estate market cooled in September, but average prices ticked up, according to new figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Seasonally adjusted sales last month in 24 major markets fell 3.1 per cent from August to 28,591, CREA said.

Sales in the four biggest markets of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary all declined. But the average price of a resale home rose by almost $3,000 to $328,660 “” up 11.1 per cent from September last year.

Prices were up year over year in every major market except Thunder Bay, Ont., where they were 0.9 per cent lower.

The big price increases in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary showed some signs of easing. Saskatoon’s average resale home sold for $242,091 in September “” still up 49.3 per cent from last year’s average.

But the number of new listings in those hot western markets also rose dramatically year over year, CREA said, helping to bring more balance to those markets.

“Buyers in Alberta will likely take more time to shop and remove some of the steam from price increases,” said CREA chief economist Gregory Klump.

He said resale housing activity across the country “remains strong,” but it’s “beginning to ease back from its breakneck pace recorded in the first half of the year.”

Vancouver’s real estate market once again topped the country’s most expensive. The average home sold for $582,354. That’s down by about $5,000 from August, but still represents a better than 10 per cent hike in the past year.

Average resale prices in the Toronto real estate market showed a $19,000 gain from August. The September average of $380,132 was up 8.9 per cent from September 2006.

In the July to September quarter, CREA said sales broke records in London, Ont., Ottawa and St. John’s, N.L.

“The underlying economic conditions in Canada that affect real estate are still very strong,” said CREA president Ann Bosley in a statement. She attributed lower overall sales to the “volume of new listings.”

The report is based on sales through the MLS system.