"But did sales really surge 27.5% year/year last month (Calgary)?
“No way,” says Kay, who has just finished a board-by-board audit of published stats. “This is false reporting, because the very nature of what’s being counted has changed.”
At the heart of it is a federal Competition Bureau ruling that private sales can appear co-mingled with broker sales in MLS numbers, since companies like ComFree now list on the realtor system, while PropertyGuys runs mirror listings through registered brokers. The result – a growing number of sales in Canada are classified as private transactions, but appear in real estate board numbers. That’s cool. A sale is a sale. But what’s misleading is that this year’s numbers (including private sales) are being compared with last year’s deals (that don’t).
Says Kay: “If CREB removes the 317 private sales in August not similarly counted last August, total sales are really up 14.24%, not 27.5%. And removing private sales from listing means there are only 6,447 active listing snow – a 28.17% decrease."
"The house at 231 9th Ave. NW is being sold privately by Lisa Evers for $1,850,000. The listing is here. But it’s also listed by Re/Max Real Estate (Central) on MLS, for $1,795,000. That listing is here. When it sells (good luck, Lisa!) it will be added into CREB’s list of MLS transactions completed, and contrasted with the same number last year, when private sales were not counted.
Why wouldnt it be added to the list of transactions? It is listed with an agent at my office and although there is a chance the owner does sell on her own, the odds are that the realtor sells it. While not 100%, I remember hearing that welists numbers on total sales included those who were with them and then moved onto a realtor who sold the property.
By the way, removing private sales, comparing apples-to-apples, Calgary sales for the year to date are 18,589, not the 21,733 reported. That’s a year/year decrease of 5.92% – a far cry from the 10.17% increase claimed by CREB. “The only reason prices have increased in Calgary,” says Kay, “as is true in every other city where they’ve climbed, is historically-low listing inventory, even as demand for homes falls.”
This is also gimmicky and I would love to see the numbers this author used. Private sales? BS.... IMO welist and comfree are not a private sale as they used to be. They are put on the MLS system by a licensed realtor and then in most cases it is a realtor who brings them a buyer. Most of these listings also offer standard commissions to a buyers agent.
I see where the writer is coming from with inflated stats however I don't believe he is painting as clear of a picture as some may think.
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