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Month: April 2020
The Bank of Canada has not changed it’s Prime lending rate
The necessary efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a sudden and deep contraction in economic activity and employment worldwide. In financial markets, this has driven a flight to safety and a sharp repricing of a wide range of assets. It has also pushed down prices for commodities, especially oil. In this environment, the Canadian dollar has depreciated since January, although by less than many other currencies. The sudden halt in global activity will be followed by regional recoveries at different times, depending on the duration and severity of the outbreak in each region. This means that the global economic recovery, when it comes, could be protracted and uneven.
The Canadian economy was in a solid position ahead of the COVID-19 outbreak, but has since been hit by widespread shutdowns and lower oil prices. One early measure of the extent of the damage was an unprecedented drop in employment in March, with more than one million jobs lost across Canada. Many more workers reported shorter hours, and by early April some six million Canadians had applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
The outlook is too uncertain at this point to provide a complete forecast. However, Bank analysis of alternative scenarios suggests the level of real activity was down 1-3 percent in the first quarter of 2020, and will be 15-30 percent lower in the second quarter than in fourth-quarter 2019. CPI inflation is expected to be close to 0 percent in the second quarter of 2020. This is primarily due to the transitory effects of lower gasoline prices.
The pandemic-driven contraction has prompted decisive policy action to support individuals and businesses and to lay the foundation for economic recovery once containment measures start to ease. Fiscal programs, designed to expand according to the magnitude of the shock, will help individuals and businesses weather this shutdown phase of the pandemic, and support incomes and confidence leading into the recovery. These programs have been complemented by actions taken by other federal agencies and provincial governments.
Weekly Real Estate Showing Report
The showing activity over the past week on CIR’s listings….is up?? We estimate the amount of showings to have declined approximately 80% compared to where we would normally be for April. While the showings are substantially lower than what would be considered normal for an April market, they have increased 27% week over week with the highest uptick of activity being in the $200,000 – $400,000 price ranges. We could speculate that this activity could be due to investors and first time buyers still making moves in the market. The sales have continued to lag behind the decreased showing activity as we are currently seeing 50% less sales in the first two weeks in April compared to the same time period in 2019. While it is too early to tell if we have hit a baseline for showings, we will continue to monitor to keep everyone informed.
CIR Realty
CIR Realty Monthly Showing Report
It was a tale of two markets in March! We came out of the gates with the momentum that was building through the last half of 2019 and the first couple months of 2020. The first two weeks of the month were well ahead of 2019’s sales numbers, and in line with the past five years trends. The last two weeks of the month told a very different story as sales and inventory levels both dropped substantially.
Even amidst the fear and the uncertainty there are bright spots within the markets. While much of the Province experienced sales drop between -4.6% (Lethbridge region) to -38.7% (Alberta West region), there were two areas that remained remarkably balanced compared to March of 2019. The Edmonton (down -1.8%) and Central Alberta (up 1.6%) regions both had comparable sales to the year before. Now both of those areas are trending below the five year averages, but all things considered in the World today, I would look at that as a win.
The more challenged areas are the most Northern regions of Grande Prairie (-19%) and Fort McMurray (-29.7%), as well as Alberta West (-38.7%). This is likely due to a combination of the Corvid-19 virus, and the troubles in the energy sector. The markets in Calgary and surrounding area were middle of the pack losing -9.8% in sales compared March ’19. The other very real challenge ahead is that the longer this lasts, the more likely it will become that there will be more sellers in the market that need to sell compared to buyers that need to buy. This will then offset the inventory and we will begin to see prices adjust.
The showing volume for CIR listings is a great indicator of how the markets are adjusting as we ended the month with just over 4,000 showings which is down 35% from the month before. The decline in showings continued to drop week over week until we ended with a third of what they were in the first week of the month. This tells us that the markets will continue to slow in the coming weeks.
CIR Realty
Weekly Showing Report
As to be expected the showing volume has declined again week over week dropping to 303 showings for CIR’s listings. Also as we had expected, online traffic has continued to increase!
CIR Realty
CALGARY REAL ESTATE NEWS 