'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Home sales across Canada fell for the third consecutive month in June as the market continued to slow from its March highs, but the month still set a record, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Thursday.
The association said sales cooled in 80 per cent of the country's local markets as 50,810 homes changed hands last month, down 8.4 per cent from 55,497 in May.
However, when compared with a year ago, sales in June rose 13.6 per cent to set a new record for the month.
While the frenzied pace of sales that kicked off 2021 and triggered an all-time record in March are dissipating, Elton Ash said CREA's figures indicate that many markets are still heated.
"We will still continue to see price escalations for the balance of this year, but it is starting to slow down as more inventory comes out on the market," said Ash, a regional executive vice-president at Re/Max Canada.
"June was another record setting month, but we do see the market starting to adjust to hopefully more realistic market conditions."
As vaccination efforts intensified and more businesses reopened following COVID-19 lockdowns, he noticed the multi-offer environment start to ease and said buyers are being "satiated somewhat" by existing supply.
CREA said 73,402 homes were listed in June, down 0.7 per cent from 73,912 in May.
On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, 86,632 were newly listed in June, up 1.4 per cent from 85,421 a year earlier.
The biggest increase in new listings between May and June came in the Halifax Dartmouth region, which saw 53.9 per cent more properties hit the market.
Meanwhile, the Quebec and Saguenay areas saw the most dramatic month-over-month drops with new listings falling by 28.1 per cent and 26.3 per cent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the most significant decline in new listings came in Saguenay, where there were 47.2 per cent fewer homes to choose from, while the largest increase was in the Niagara region of Ontario, where a 34.3 per cent spike was seen.
Across the country, CREA said the actual national average price of a home sold in June was a little over $679,000, up 25.9 per cent from $539,182 a year ago.
Vancouver had the highest prices with the average home selling for $1,199,984, up 14.3 per cent from $1,049,475 the year before.
The Greater Toronto Area trailed at $1,089,560, up 17 per cent from $930,869 in June 2020.
CREA said year-over-year price growth is averaging around 30 per cent in Ontario, 20 per cent in B.C., 15 per cent in Manitoba and 10 per cent in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
While CREA's senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the theme of the summer and many housing markets is "slowly getting back to normal," he admitted that "it's a long road back to normal."
In a note to clients, BMO Capital Markets senior economist Robert Kavcic appeared to agree.
Extreme levels of housing sales are disappearing, but demand is historically high, he wrote.
"We believe that sales activity will continue to gradually cool in the year ahead, but it's going to take higher interest rates to soften the market in a meaningful way."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2021.
An earlier version incorrectly stated the change in new listings.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.