The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has updated its resale housing forecast for 2015. While sales are expected to increase, most of the growth is due to activity in British Columbia.

photo_web_1682On June 15 the CREA released its revised forecast for housing resale activity on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) this year, and it says that sales across the country are now projected to rise by 1.3%. This increase, however, is mostly due to the 12.2% gain projected for British Columbia. Alberta and Saskatchewan have been hit hard by declining oil prices and are expected to post annual sales declines of 18.2% and 12.9% respectively.

"Low rise property markets remain tight in parts of British Columbia and Ontario. These are the only two provinces where a shortage of listings for low rise homes is expected to fuel average price gains above inflation this year," reads the report. "In other provinces, listings have begun to decline but remain elevated. Average prices across the Prairies, Quebec and the Atlantic region are unlikely to see much in the way of price growth over the forecast horizon as sales gradually deplete listings."