The data above are from the Real Estate Board's websites and refer to RESIDENTIAL UNITS ONLY. The different Real Estate Boards do not publish a glossary of
shared terminology nor do they report their data in a consistent manner. Inventory levels are difficult to monitor, some metrics appear one month but not the next,
sometimes only new listings are tabulated, and sometimes total
active listings are reported. The reporting boards like to spin their numbers
and use adjectives like "balanced" when describing ballooning
inventory and sagging sales, or they don't report current
conditions fully but rely on references to past glories or year to
date measures which smooth out near term trend changes.
CMHC is no better
at producing clear transparent publication of data. All of these (non-public) organizations represent interests that have reasons to cloak data when it suits an agenda. When monthly data
are unavailable to draw a complete chart, I have used an average calculation between the months preceding and following the missing data point.
The Ottawa Board does not publish sales or inventory details but leaves that up to CMHC.
And CMHC is at least one month behind, and inconsistent in their reporting as well. On the
Major Canadian Cities Chart I have used
Ottawa combined residential prices because detached single family data are not published
monthly.
Montreal data on the
Major Canadian Cities Chart
changes from average to median price reporting at March 2007. CMHC
stopped reporting average prices for Montreal as of February 2009.
Inventory Note: When available I use "Active Listings at End of Month" rather than "New Listings Added". Again, there is no consistency in reporting inventory
from the various real estate boards or CMHC. |