Tony Wong – Toronto Star

The Toronto real estate mar­ket sur­prised econ­o­mists with a better-than-expected resur­gence in June. But a look at major mar­kets across Canada shows that other cities across the coun­try also had a sim­i­lar — if not more spec­tac­u­lar rebound in that month.

Toronto’s stel­lar 27% increase in sales in June com­pared to last year, was out­done by sales in Greater Van­cou­ver and Cal­gary accord­ing to fig­ures com­piled by ReMax Ontario Atlantic Canada in a report today.

“More bal­anced mar­ket con­di­tions have emerged, effec­tively end­ing the stran­gle­hold that buy­ers had on the mar­ket over the past six to eight months,” said ReMax. “Low inter­est rates and increased afford­abil­ity have served to stim­u­late mar­ket activity.”

ReMax’s research is a pre­view of the Cana­dian Real Estate Asso­ci­a­tion‘s national fig­ures. Those num­bers, expected out tomor­row, give a snap­shot of how the entire Cana­dian mar­ket is performing.

Van­cou­ver was the top per­former in June with sales up by an eye-catching 76%. The city recorded the second-best month on record with 4,259 sales, com­pared to 4,333 sales in June of 2005.

While the mar­ket is largely bal­anced, bid­ding wars have emerged in some areas. In Kit­si­lano, about 50% of hous­ing is sell­ing in mul­ti­ple offers.

In Cal­gary, sales of 3,047 homes last month resulted in a 28% jump from the same time last year.

“With increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion among first time buy­ers the sup­ply of starter homes is tight­en­ing,” said ReMax.

In third place Toronto, the 10,955 units sold in June came close to the his­toric record of 11,146 units of May 2007. Still, hav­ing the second-best month ever in terms of sales is not a bad feat in the mid­dle of a recession.

Inven­tory is down about 30% from the same time last year. Fewer list­ings and a lower sup­ply of avail­able homes has resulted in mul­ti­ple offers in some areas. The strongest demand is for homes in the $300,000 to $600,000 range.

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