Home sellers were distracted by other issues in early September

Housing listings are starting to grow in the GTA, as homeowners are not as distracted now than a few weeks ago.

The beginning of September was full of other important things for many sellers, including students coming back to school, the Jewish High Holy Days and, of course, the federal election.

All major political parties paid particular attention to the housing market in their campaigns. The real estate issue has never been such a hot topic during the election.

Many real estate agents believe that listings will start increasing now that the federal election is over. Certain clients have made it clear that they don’t want to list their property before the election results are known.

The slowdown from both sides of the housing market is a common thing during provincial or federal election in Canada, and sometimes even during the president election in the U.S. However, this time only sellers showed a weaker activity.

Sellers who decided to list over this period, have faced an incredibly strong demand.

These days, most of the buyers are looking to move to a larger home. Although the national economy is reopening and some workers return to offices, many buyers still want a more spacious property for themselves.

Certain homeowners who plan a sale also have a second property in the suburbs or at the lake and want to cash their investment in the city.

Realtors believe that the real estate market will show higher activity over the next few weeks before slowing down at the end of the year, just like we’ve seen in the previous years. Although the pandemic distorted the standard rhythm of spring and fall markets, buyers and sellers may return to the usual schedule.

According to Farah Omran, economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, the market will rebound after some buyers enjoyed a double-vaccinated summer.

In her opinion, home sales growth will be supported by a recovering economy, improved labour conditions and the new wave of immigration.

Nevertheless, home sales will probably moderate because of poorer affordability, Ms. Omran says, while an imbalance between supply and demand supports the prices increase.

Ms. Omran noted that certain buyers may be changing their plans expecting borrowing costs growth, as the central bank will start raising its key lending rate in response to a recovering economy with strong inflation.

She doesn’t expect the first rate increase by the Bank of Canada earlier than in the second half of 2022.