Real estate sales reached record level in 2020, while younger Canadians are massively leaving large cities

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), home sales last month reached an all-time record monthly level.

December sales rose by 47.2% annually, marking the biggest year-over-year increase of monthly sales in 11 years. In addition to it, sales also showed a 7.2% monthly gain.

CREA says 551,392 homes were sold over 2020, which is 12.6% more than in 2019 and also a new record.

The national average home price reached a record $607,280 last month, reporting an annual increase by 17.1%.

In case we exclude Greater Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area from calculations, the national average price will be lower by about $130,000.

Meanwhile, a record number of Canadians left large urban centers in 2020, driven mostly by youth and young families.

Canada’s three largest cities (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) showed a significant increase in the number of citizens moving to suburbs, smaller towns and rural areas, Statistics Canada says. During the period from July 2019 to July 2020, 87,444 people left those three cities, moving to other parts of the same province. At the same time, the average annual number for the previous 3 years was 72,686.

But it’s not a new trend, as Canadians have been switching from large cities to suburbs over the last few years, and their places were taken by new immigrants. The pandemic only accelerated the tendency, especially among younger citizens.

Almost a third of the growth in outflows was represented by citizens between the ages of 15 to 29, and 82% were people younger than 45.

As a result, we’ve seen a vivid trend with large suburban houses reporting the biggest prices gains in 2020.