April 15th, 2016 — The 2016 first quarter residential sales is cause for optimism in Québec, in stark contrast with the disappointing first quarter of 2015. This information is in the JLR Quarterly report on the Québec real-estate market.
This being said, one must take this good news with a grain of salt, as “the total number of transactions remains relatively low”, compared to the last ten year average, says the columnist Joanie Fontaine, of the Journal Les Affaires.
“For co-ownerships, 4 341 purchases have been registered during the first quarter, which is 9.4% more than last year. It is a nice rebound after a particularly difficult 2015 year”, adds Joanie Fontaine.
Price wise, single family homes sold progressed 2.5% in the 2016 first quarter, from the same period last year, to reach $228 000. For co-ownerships, the average price has increased by 3.2% ($238 000). These increases are slightly more than inflation.
After a few difficult years, sales are once again increasing during the first quarter. It will be interesting to see if this trend is confirmed in the next months. The first three months of the year are those with the least transactions. Consequently, this quarter has a limited impact on the statistics for the whole year.
