Home resales set new record in January

Sales of existing homes climbed by two percent in January, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), setting a new all-time record. The seasonally adjusted activity was running at an annualized pace of 736,452 units, already beating CREA’s total forecast of 583,635 sales for 2021. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity posted a 35.2 percent gain, year over year, in January. The number of newly listed homes dropped by 13.3 percent, led by double-digit declines in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton-Burlington, London and St. Thomas, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax-Dartmouth.