With prices continuing to push higher in British Columbia and Ontario and sales hitting records, average home values are set to rise 8% in 2016 to $478,100, it is predicted.

In 2017, it is expected to rise by another 1.1% to $482,500 in 2017, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has predicted in an updated forecast.

Sales in Canada are set to rise by 1% to 511,400 units in 2016 and by a further 0.4% in 2017, to 513,400, CREA believes. In its last quarterly forecast in December 2015, it estimated that 2016 sales would fall 1.1% to 498,600.

This year’s updated projected increase is lower than the 5.4% rise to 506,410 sales achieved in 2015.

CREA’s recent forecasts anticipated that housing activity would rebalance in 2016, with cooling activity and smaller price gains in British Columbia and Ontario, resulting in slower national price growth.

But many of the defining themes among Canadian housing markets in 2015 have persisted, and in some cases intensified, in early 2016. 

Interest rates are now also widely expected to remain low for longer, with lending rates not expected to increase until the second half of 2017, says CREA.

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