Toronto and Vancouver Lead Nation’s Real Estate Market

If there is anywhere to live in Canada when you want to buy a house, or sell one for that matter, it is Toronto and Vancouver. Both cities saw huge increases in sales and prices throughout the month of November, which continues a trend that began back in July for the real estate market. As a result, these two cities alone helped to increase the entire real estate market around the country, even as some places saw falling prices and sales.

The Greater Toronto Area had sales of 7,446, which was double that of the previous November. Even the price of an average home increased by 14 percent to $418,460, giving a total year-to-date growth of four percent in Toronto. For this reason, many experts are thinking that the growth will continue until at least June of 2010.

 Across the country, many experts are thinking that the current real estate market could increase to the level seen between 2004 and 2006, with increases in the resale of homes. The real estate market has been so strong in places like Toronto and Vancouver, that many believe the real estate sector was key in bringing Canada out of the recession during the third quarter of 2009, which was much earlier than any economists thought it would happen.

 Across the country in Vancouver, which is booming thanks to the Olympics on their way in February, there is an even bigger jump. While sales are double what they were in 2008 for Toronto, sales in Vancouver have jumped an unbelievable 253 percent over what they were in November of 2009. As amazing as that is, it is not as high as the levels reached in October. Vancouver saw a big increase over the previous year in sales, but a dip between October and November.

In Vancouver, the average home is priced at $557,384, over $100,000 above what the prices are in Toronto. This is an increase of 12.4 percent from one year ago and 1.9 percent below the peak that was reached in May of 2008.

 These two major cities are helping to bring the rest of Canada out of a recession. Places like Ottawa and Calgary have also seen increases in sales and prices, helping to bring up the rest of Canada, even as the Maritimes, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are seeing some troubling numbers with their own real estate markets.