As of June 30th, banks have provided help through mortgage deferrals to more than 760,000 Canadians, which represents 16% of the number of mortgages in bank portfolios. The banks were so inundated with requests when the initial announcements were made, that roughly 90% of customers seeking a mortgage deferral were approved. By total volume of mortgages deferred, Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario are leading the country. Quebec represents the largest segment, at 27% the mortgages on deferred payment plans. Alberta is second with 26% of the insured payment deferrals. Ontario comes in third with 21% – just over one in five. Pricey BC is in a distant fourth, representing 7% of the pool.
Canadian real estate prices are growing at a breakneck speed. More homes were sold in July than any other month on record, with data going back more than 40 years. The performance of the housing market during this pandemic recession has been a big surprise. The price of a typical home across Canada reached $637,600 in July, a 7.56% increase compared to the same month last year. Canadian real estate buyers are shrugging off the pandemic, as a temporary inconvenience. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) data shows prices made a huge increase, not just in known “hot” markets like Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal but in almost every real estate market across Canada.
The real estate market remains hot! July was a record-breaking month for real estate as the GTA reported 11,081 sales - a 29.5% increase over July 2019 and a new record for the month of July. It’s hard to believe we are in a pandemic and the numbers for July are mind boggling. We are seeing the results of pent up activity from both buyers and sellers, that has been accumulating over that last few months. Low interest rates and limited overall supply are also increasing competition across our market. Here are some of the results for July:
Toronto new condo sales fell to their lowest level as developers stopped launching projects when Covid shuttered the economy and slowed home building. There were only 1,385 new condo sales in April, May and June, the weakest activity since 2009 when the U.S. housing market crashed. Sales were down 85% compared to the same period last year according to Urbanation, an industry group which tracks condo building trends. Over the second quarter, six projects totalling 1,176 units were launched, down substantially from the same period last year when 40 projects totalling 11,415 units launched.
The Ontario government has lifted the ban on public open houses effective today in regions entering Stage 3 and Toronto is expected to follow suit by the end of the month. But is this such a good idea? Will sellers allow them? And will buyers attend? And what about the safety of the Realtor? The topic has become a hot one among real estate agents. Many people would attend open houses as a pastime – even if they weren’t planning to buy right away. Open houses were just an easy way to see homes and sometimes viewed as an ineffective way of driving traffic to a property.