December 4, 2009

OTTAWA – A new report released by Re/Max suggests that the housing market will have fully recovered from the downturn by the end of 2009 and that prices will rise in 91 per cent of major Canadian markets.
The report points to Canada as having "proven to be a safe harbour, with sales and average price expected to post gains in most major Canadian cities in 2009," the realtor's Housing Market Outlook for 2010 says.
Re/Max estimates that by the end of the year, approximately 465,000 homes will have been sold in Canada at an average price of $318,000 – which would represent increases of seven and five per cent respectively versus 2008’s totals. Each of those figures is projected to increase by another two per cent in 2010.
"2009 was without question the year of the house," Michael Polzler, executive vice-president, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada, said in a statement. "Real estate not only defied industry and analysts' predictions in 2009 — its performance went well beyond the realm of expectation by boosting consumer confidence levels and ultimately kick-starting the national economic engine."