A condo complex is seen in downtown Calgary. Condo sales in the city rose by 21 per cent.Jeff McIntosh/The Globe and Mail
The Globe's Real Estate Beat offers news and analysis on the Canadian housing market from real estate reporter Tara Perkins. Read more on The Globe's housing page and follow Tara on Twitter @TaraPerkins.
The Canadian Real Estate Association is set to release existing homes sales data for July on Friday and economists will be watching closely to see whether the momentum the market has shown in recent months will persist.
Opinions are mixed about whether the recent sales growth stems mostly from buyers who hibernated during the exceptionally cold weather earlier in the year, or whether it is sustainable.
More homes changed hands over the Multiple Listing Service during June than in any other month over the prior four years, pulled up by activity in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton.
While the national numbers for July won't be out until the end of the week, data from local real estate boards have already been released in various parts of the country, and sales don't appear to have levelled off. They are up 2 per cent in Montreal year over year, 9.7 per cent in Edmonton, 3.9 per cent in Vancouver, 3.18 per cent in Calgary, and 10 per cent in Toronto.
One interesting note is that condo sales are outpacing detached home sales in a number of cities, including Montreal, Calgary, and Edmonton, a phenomenon that industry experts say stems largely from rising home prices.
While sales are rising, prices have retreated recently on a month-to-month basis. Market observers have been watching and waiting for the average selling price of a detached home in downtown Toronto to hit the $1-million mark, but the average selling price of a detached home in the City of Toronto was $880,433 in July, down from $921,127 in June, $943,055 in May, $965,670 in April and $898,332 in March.
MONTREAL
-2,593 homes changed hands in the Montreal census metropolitan area, up 2 per cent compared to July of last year
-That marked the second monthly rise in sales, on the heels of eight months in a row of declines
-The increase was all due to condo sales, which jumped by 13 per cent year-over-year. Single-family home sales fell by 4 per cent
-The median price of condos rose 3 per cent to $235,000. The median price of single-family homes rose 1 per cent to $287,500
EDMONTON
-2,013 homes sold, up 9.7 per cent from a year earlier
-Condo sales were up 15.4 per cent, detached single-family home sales increased 4.8 per cent, sales of duplexes and row houses were up 27.7 per cent
-The average number of days homes were on the market before selling rose to 46 in July, from 41 in June
-The median selling price of a condo was up 6.2 per cent from a year earlier, to $239,000, while the median price of a detached home was up 3.1 per cent to $396,000
VANCOUVER
-3,061 homes sold in Greater Vancouver, up 3.9 per cent from a year earlier
-That was 3.8 per cent higher than the average number of sales during the month of July over the past decade
-July marked the fourth month in a row that sales topped 3,000, a level that it hadn't previously hit since June 2011
-The benchmark price of homes was $628,600, up 4.4 per cent from a year earlier
CALGARY
-2,336 homes sold, up 3.18 per cent from a year ago, marking a record for the month of July and coming in almost 19 per cent higher than the long-term average for the month
-More supply is hitting the market, with new listings rising 18 per cent from a year earlier
-Sales of single-family homes were down 1.3 per cent, while condo apartment and townhouse sales rose by 21 and 19 per cent respectively
-The local real estate board says prices appear to be levelling off after two years of increases. The benchmark price of a single-family home was $511,600 in July, up 10.8 per cent from a year earlier. The benchmark price of apartments or condos was $298,100.
TORONTO
-9,198 homes sold in the Toronto area, up 10 per cent from a year earlier
-That marks the second-highest July sales level on record, and is well above the average 10-year sales level for July of 7,926
-Sales of detached homes rose by 10.3 per cent, sales of condos rose by 13.8 per cent
-The average selling price of detached homes rose 8.2 per cent to $695,745, while the average selling price of condos rose 5.3 per cent to 357,345