From the globe....
Home price slide may be overstated, TD economists say
Article Comments (25) LORI MCLEOD
Globe and Mail Update
October 22, 2008 at 11:35 AM EDT
Canadian home prices cooled last month, but the depth of the correction may have been exaggerated by distorted data, says a research note released Wednesday by TD Securities Inc.
The average price of a resale home across the country's 25 major markets fell by an estimated 6.2 per cent year-over-year in September, according to a report last week from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
The decline was larger than many market watchers had expected, and added to fears the Canadian housing market could go into a U.S.-style freefall.
However the price drop was led by a 43 per cent plunge in the number of homes sold last month in Vancouver, the country's most expensive market.
“The crux of the issue is that unless the underlying cities are properly weighted...the results can be biased by dramatic changes in the volume of the sales in certain cities,†said the report by TD economists Millan Mulraine and Eric Lascelles.
Currently, the average existing home price is calculated by using an average that gives each city a weighting based on its contribution to overall sales, Mr. Mulraine said. TD recalculated the data by fixing the weighting to last year's data instead, which is a more standard method of calculating year-over-year comparisons for economic data, he added.
Under the new weighting system, last month's average existing home price decline would be a more moderate 1.3 per cent from Sept. 2007, the TD report said.
“As a result, concerns that the Canadian housing sector may follow its U.S. counterpart into a major correction may be overblown,†it added.
However, there are already some early signs that October could be a weak month for the resale housing market, and not just as a result of falling sales in Vancouver.
In the first half of October, sales fell by 18 per cent and prices by 11 per cent year-over-year in the Greater Toronto Area, the country's largest housing market.
In Calgary in the past 14 days, there have been 1,598 price reductions. Listings are still far outpacing sales, with 8,450 active listings compared with 809 sales so far this month.