Written by  Omid Jalili

In a continued show of positive news for the Canadian real estate market, The Canadian Real Estate Association(CREA) has reported that real estate activity across much of the country was in line with expectations, although there were several factors that would have otherwise pointed to some manner of slow down.

In fact there was even some growth in areas facing challenging times. Ontario, a province that has lost a portion of it’s manufacturing base, had an especially strong third quarter when it came to sales. It’s thought that the numbers here were held aloft by the statistics from Toronto in particular.

Even the national home price forecast by CREA appears to be bucking some of the economic slowdown news and settling in at a national average of $362,700. That represents a rise of 7 percent. Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist, points to several factors responsible  for the positive trends in the national real estate market.

He says that although there have been indicators that the global economic situation might have some affect on the generally positive Canadian outlook in the long run, the federal government and the Bank of Canada  has made it clear they stand at the ready to get involved with the right responses where needed.

Klump says this backing is encouraging news for both the Canadian economy and the real estate markets. Recent statistics show that housing sales were up in October after decent numbers were put up in September. The numbers that were recently released by CREA actually show that overall sales were on pace with the ten year average.

The best gains for monthly sales were in the bigger urban centers of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Overall, all these statistics point to consumer confidence in the Canadian economy and a general feeling that Canada won’t be too adversely affected by global conditions.