August 2020

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that a total of 10,090 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in July 2020, an increase of 26.6 per cent from July 2019. The average MLS® residential price in BC was $770,810, a 12.9 per cent increase from $682,702 recorded the previous year. Total sa...

Canadian housing starts increased by 16% m/m to 245,604 units in July at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), which was well above pre-COVID levels . This brought up the national housing starts six month average to 204,376 units SAAR. Housing starts were up across the country with notable growth in the Prairies and Atlantic Canada.

In BC, hous...

Canadian employment grew by 419,000 jobs in July (2.4%, m/m). Combined with gains in May of 290,000 and gains in June of 953,000, this brought national employment to within 1.3 million of the pre-COVID February level. The national unemployment rate fell by 1.4 percentage points to 10.9 per cent from the previous month. Most of the employment gains...