Canadian Home Sales Down by 15.8% in February, 2013

When last January's national sales fell mildly by 5.2%, the CREA was cheering as if the slow down had stopped. Interestingly, Ben Rabidoux pointed that January, 2013, had one business day less than in January 2012. That one extra day buoyed the sales decline this past January. Furthermore, Ben predicted that national sales this February would be much worse than in January due to one extra business day that this February has in comparison to February 2012. As Ben expected, the CREA emphasized that.

"February 2012 saw an extra selling day due to the leap year. However, the year-overyear decline between this February and last year is largely a reflection of demand that is well off from 2012," said Gregory Klump, 

As usual, the real estate industry will manipulate information in order to pursue their agenda of rising housing prices. CREA does not benefit from falling sales volume or housing deprecation and they will do whatever it takes to make it look better than it seems. 

Summary of CREA report:

- Seasonally adjusted national sales fell 2.7% in February from January
- On a year to year basis sales fell by 15.8%
- Average house price in Canada fall by 1% to $368,895
- HPI index rose by 2.7% , the smallest gain since March 2011
- HPI index rose by 3.2% in Greater Toronto Area

- CREA expects an overall 3% drop in national sales in 2013
- CREA expects national prices to decline by 0.2% and Ontario prices to decline by 1% in 2013

80% of local markets in Canada reported a decline in sales volume. One may think that statistics on a national level may not apply to you, but it does as it is often shows an underlying trend. 

In other news, Statscan reported today that household debt increased by 5.5% in 2012 compared to a year earlier and currently debt-to-income ratio stands at 165%.