The final national housing report of 2019 has been released and it’s certainly more positive than the final report of 2018.

There was a 22.7% increase in activity between the end of 2018 and the end of 2019, which is creeping back towards the record numbers seen in 2016 and 2017.

Sales wise, they fell slightly under 1% between November 2019 and December 2019, but the year end numbers are much higher than we saw at the end of 2018.

Along with activity and final sales, the price of homes across Canada has also gone up nearly 10% over the past 12 months.

“If the recent past is prelude, then price trends in British Columbia, the GTA, Ottawa and Montreal look set to lift the national result this year, despite the continuation of a weak pricing environment among housing markets across the Prairie region,” explained Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist.

CREA stats also show that houses are currently staying on the market for the shortest amount of time since the summer of 2007.

The national average at the end of 2019 was 4.2 months.

For more information on CREA’s housing statistics to end 2019 and start 2020, click this link.