The media and the Real Estate Market in April 2023?

Le Journal de Montréal publishes: Prices and transactions continue to fall. The downward trend continues in Quebec’s real estate sector, which is still marked by significant declines in activity and prices in the resale market.
The newspaper, les affaires, publishes: While residential property sales reached a new low last March, Quebecer’s morale seems to be picking up on the real estate market according to a Royal Bank (RBC) survey released today.
ICI Québec publishes that Quebec City’s real estate market remains one of the most affordable in the province. All metropolitan areas recorded a decline in sales in the first quarter of 2023, according to a report by the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB), except for the greater Quebec City area which stands out because there are still more sales than anywhere else in the province, mainly because prices remain relatively affordable.

In short, according to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB):
1.  The year 2023 began as 2022 ended, with the lowest level of sales recorded in the last 10 years.
2.  The inability of many first-time buyers to qualify for a loan does not explain everything: the wait-and-see attitude of experienced buyers and sellers has also played a large role in the weakening of transaction levels and the rebound in sales delays.
3.  The most affordable markets have shown resilience, the level of activity contrasts with that of the Montreal region, which is declining more sharply.
4.  Despite the weak activity, market conditions continued to favor sellers, allowing prices to remain relatively stable compared to last year.

The QPAREB provides the following details:
In Quebec’s province, activity in the real estate market continued to slow down in the first quarter of 2023 with a decline of -28% compared to the same quarter in 2022 and more specifically -31% for the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). Markets in the south of the province, which had been most exposed to overheating, overbidding and overvaluation until early 2022, experienced very low levels of sales. This has resulted in the accumulation of properties that have not found takers. However, sellers generally remain advantaged in most other metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Quebec, despite favorable market conditions for buyers for the first time since 2015 in a few sectors, according to Charles Brant, Director of the QPAREB’s Market Analysis Department. All in all, most sales closed at the posted price and a resurgence of outbidding in several markets was even observed, thus limiting price declines.
In Quebec, the number of active listings increased by 47% compared to the same period in 2022 and marked the fourth consecutive quarter of increase for active listings. For the Montreal CMA, enrolments varied by 61%.
Across Quebec, the median price of single-family homes fell by -4% compared to the first quarter of 2022. This price nevertheless represented an increase of 3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. The trend is similar in condominiums, the median price is stable. Small income properties experienced a more marked decrease in their median price, -13% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Nevertheless, the median price remained stable compared to the previous quarter.

A sign of the tensions that are easing in the single-family home market in Quebec, the average selling time was 61 days in the first quarter of 2023, 15 days more than in the same period in 2022.
But that’s not all, the recent announcement by the Bank of Canada to keep its key rate unchanged at 4.5% has given a blow and put the wind in the sails of buyers and investors. Despite the slowdown still observed in March, there is a craze and recovery in real estate activities in certain sectors that suggests that this trend will continue.

Source APCIQ