Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you will make, as a First Time Homebuyer it is important to know your current financial situation to ensure that you buy a home that you can afford.
Looking at the Canadian Real Estate Association’s data, it shows that sales made a substantial jump higher in December. Most of the increase is due to Vancouver’s return to normal volumes. Looking at the bigger picture, almost every major market across Canada is now seeing volumes climbing substantially.
The biggest growth in numbers were in last year’s biggest losers, around Greater Vancouver. Vancouver sales were up a whopping 87% from last year. Fraser Valley followed with 53.9% up, over the same period. The catch is that Vancouver and Fraser Valley had unusually slow sales numbers the previous year, so it brings them more in line with 2017 volumes for the month.
Evidence suggests housing activity will continue to improve into 2020, with prices either continuing to rise or accelerating in many parts of Canada.
The national resale housing market outlook, continues to be supported by population and employment growth, while consumer confidence is benefiting from low unemployment rates, outside oil-producing provinces. Additionally, the Bank of Canada is widely expected to not raise interest rates in 2020.
Additionally, the Federal Government launched the First-Time-Home-Buyer-Incentive-Program last year. Under the $1.25 billion shared equity program, the Federal Government contributes a portion of the home purchase price, in exchange for an equity share of the home’s value.
The forecast is that sales will continue to improve through 2020, although maybe slowly than they did over the summer of 2019. National home sales are forecast to rise by 8.9% to around 530,000 units in 2020. While sales are expected to trend higher, most of this annual increase in 2020, reflects a weak start to 2019, rather than a significant change in sales trends over the forecast horizon. Read more…
If you are looking to purchase your first home, let us put you in the driver’s seat, by having lenders compete for your mortgage business. Contact us today. Our no cost, no obligation service includes, unbiased mortgage advice that looks out for your best interest.
Original article: www.crea.ca
