By Fergal Smith
TORONTO (Reuters) -Greater Toronto Area home sales fell to a four-month low in October as an uncertain economic outlook discouraged buyers, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data showed on Wednesday.
Seasonally adjusted sales declined 2.3% last month from September to 5,646 units, marking the lowest level since June.
The board’s home price index was up 0.2% month-over-month, after seasonal adjustment, to C$976,600 ($696,378). That follows four straight months of declines.
The Greater Toronto Area includes Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, and four surrounding regional municipalities.
“Buyers who are confident in their employment situation and ability to make their mortgage payments over the long term are benefiting from affordable housing market conditions relative to the past few years,” the board’s president, Elechia Barry-Sproule, said in a statement.
“However, many intending homebuyers remain on the sidelines due to uncertainty about their economic future.”
Canada’s economy has been badly hurt by the U.S.-led trade war. Last week, the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark interest rate to a three-year low of 2.25%.
On a year-to-year basis, the price index fell 5%, while sales were down 9.5% and new listings rose 2.7%.
($1 = 1.4024 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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