Canada Existing House Prices Drop 0.7% in October

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canadian existing home sales fell slightly in October after a remarkable surge starting in May from a virus-fueled plunge.

Home sales dropped 0.7% on a seasonally-adjusted basis in October, after reaching a fresh record for monthly sales in the prior month, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Actual, or not seasonally adjusted, sales activity in October meanwhile rose 32.1% from the same year-ago period.

For the first 10 months of 2020, transactions involving existing homes total 461,818, or 8.6% higher from the comparable year ago period. This is despite the fact month-over-month sales fell in March and April by 14.3% and 56.8%, respectively.

The real-estate association attributed the increase in activity partly to households willing to pull up stakes and move elsewhere, to a bigger space outside of urban cores able to accommodate a home office.

"We could be seeing a lot of moves, or churn in the market, that would not have happened in a non-Covid world," Shaun Cathcart, the association's senior economist, said.

CREA said data indicate there were just 2.5 months of inventory across the country at the end of October, or the lowest reading on record for this measure. The association's adjusted house-price index rose 1% in October from the previous month, and increased nearly 11% on a one-year basis.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-16-20 0951ET