Canadian Home Sales Set Record In March

OTTAWA — According to statistics released by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales posted their third monthly increase and broke all previous monthly records.
Highlights:

• National home sales rose by 1.5% from February to March.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 12.2% compared to March 2015.
• The number of newly listed homes fell by 1.4% from February to March.
• The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) rose 9.1% year-over-year in March.
• The national average sale price rose 15.7% on a year-over-year basis in March (net of Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, it climbed by 10.4 percent year-over-year).
• The number of homes trading hands via Canadian MLS Systems rose by 1.5 percent month-over-month to set a new all-time record in March 2016. Though sales edged lower in Greater Vancouver (-0.3%) and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) (-1.8% m-m), both remain near record highs reached the month before.