According to The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales in August 2013 show a marked improvement from in values from the year prior.

Here are the highlights:

• National home sales rose 2.8% from July to August.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 11.1% above levels in August 2012.
• The number of newly listed homes was up 1.8% from July to August.
• The Canadian housing market has tightened but remains in balanced territory.
• The national average sale price rose 8.1% on a year-over-year basis in August.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 2.9% year-over-year in August.

“Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, a record 73 per cent of all local markets were in balanced market territory in August. The number of months of inventory is another important measure of balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to completely liquidate current inventories at the current rate of sales activity. There were 5.9 months of inventory at the national level at the end of August, down from 6.1 months one month earlier. As with the sales-to-new listings ratio, the current months of inventory measure marks a slightly firmer but still well balanced market.”

Click HERE for the CREA website and stats.

~ Steven Fudge, purveyor of canadianrealestatehousingandhome.ca and lead realtor for Toronto’s hip housing brand www.urbaneer.com