MONTHLY ABSORPTION RATE & MONTHS of INVENTORY for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal
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The MAR & MOI data are based on monthly residential totals at the end of each month. Listing data are TOTAL ACTIVE residential listings.
Developers like to build and vendors like to sell when the Absorption Rate (MAR) is high or trending up, but when the Months of Inventory (MOI) levels are on the rise and breaking above 4 months, vendors are just competing in an overpriced market.
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Look also at the charts of the 6 big metros and the overblown markets of Vancouver, Calgary & Toronto to see if the price series and the Sales & Listings activity confirm the BUYER SELLER Advantage trends.
Montreal is often late in reporting so I may delay updating these charts until the second week of the month when the Montreal data are usually released. A big hat tip to HomeTeamOttawa.com who supply the total active listings data each month for Ottawa (red line) which is not published by CMHC or the Ottawa Real Estate Board's public websites.
The different Canadian Real Estate Boards do not gather or publish their sales and listing data in a uniform manner, nor do they agree on definitions, nor do they agree on rules for measuring the time it takes to sell a listing. Local boards also change some data after the initial post has been made and data sharing between local boards and CMHC also results in reporting differences.
#OPENDATA - THIS CITIZEN'S DREAM: It would help if Government Agencies especially all land registry offices had open to the public online databases updated in real time as transactions occur so that the private sector could produce unbiased market analysis. The same goes for the Canadian Census and all Real Estate Boards. If we want a society able to make better decisions we need better data. Imagine a country that could build affordable housing in real time to meet the needs of its citizens. Collecting, publishing and using accurate data is a key element in rational decision making especially in an asset class that is so highly valued. Here are some radical ideas. Write your Member of Parliament.
