Real estate market in Canada ‘not dead yet’

The real estate market in Canada is
at a ‘tipping point’ according to one of the country’s leading real estate
agents.  Experts have predicted
that prices of property in the country are set to soften in coming months, but
the historically resilient market is set to see stable growth in 2012.

Keep reading to find out more
about one of the world’s most stable housing markets.

Property in Canada will see a 3.2 per cent price rise in 2012

Royal LePage Real Estate Services
says that the average property price in Canada will rise by 3.2 per cent in
2012, above its 2.8 per cent estimate earlier this year.

However, the real estate agent’s
report also suggests that Canada’s residential property market appears to be at
a tipping point, with some areas likely too expensive for buyers at the current
levels.

Phil Soper, chief executive of
LePage Real Estate, said: “We have had three years of solid house price
appreciation in almost all regions of the country.

“Confidence in Canada’s real
estate market is sound, but home prices cannot grow faster than salaries and
the underlying economy indefinitely.  Some regions have reached or perhaps even exceeded the
current upper level of price resistance as buyers have embraced an era of
historically low mortgage rates.”

A historically stable market

Although the agent expects house
prices to soften in coming months, history has shown that property prices in
Canada don’t experience long term, sustained declines.

In a news release, the company
said: “Following a period of significant price appreciation, Canadian real
property prices tend to flatten versus decline, until the economy catches up to
the new price norms.”

The longest period of national
average property price decline since 1980 took place in 1995 and lasted for 14
months.  The last notable drop in Canadian
property prices took place in 2008 and it lasted only 11 months while there was
a period of over 16 years before that without a significant decline.