Vancouver resale home market surges 252% in November over 2009

Vancouver led the Canadian housing market in November existing home sales with a 252-per-cent year-to-year surge.

Victoria (+116 per cent), Toronto (+105 per cent) and Calgary (+67 per cent) followed close behind as Canada as a whole saw a 73-per-cent increase in existing home sales, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Prices were also led last month by Vancouver's 22-per-cent year-over-year rise in existing home prices.

Nationally, the 73-per-cent jump in November from a year earlier came as the real estate market continued to recover from the economic downturn.

CREA said that 36,383 residential properties were sold last month, with Ontario and Quebec setting sales records for November.

"The current strength of housing demand stands in sharp contrast to weak activity recorded one year ago," CREA said in its report, adding that activity was just 4/10 of a per cent below the highest level for the month recorded in November 2007.

"National home sales activity last month shows how strongly the housing market has rebounded since the beginning of the year," said CREA president Dale Ripplinger. "As we predicted last April, the rebound in resale housing activity led the overall Canadian economy out of recession."

The national residential average price was $337,231 in November, up 19 per cent from a year earlier.