June 2015

Sales activity continues to be brisk up again for last month over the same month last year. The actual sales increase year over year is a substantial 26.8% with 905 MLS sales reported May 2015 versus 714 in May 2014. Almost back to the blistering pace we were on in 2007 with 963 sales in May of that year.

The number of active listings available for sale continues at a lower supply than the same time last year with 4.043 at the end of May compared to 4,672 in May 2014.

With those numbers the ratio of sales to current listings has dropped to just an overall 4 month supply from close to a 7 month supply at the same time last year. This current imbalance favours home sellers with more buyers competing for fewer listings and most would agree that we are

Both CMHC and Genworth increased their premiums effective June 1,2015 for first time home buyers for those with less than 10% down payment.The actual increase is from 3.15% to 3.60%. The result is that the monthly payment for the insurance for an average $300,000 mortgage increase by $4.50 per month to $36.00 from $31.50.When you break it down it's clear to see that in itself we should not expect this increase to have any significant impact on the market.