Home buyers can expect more choice and lower prices in the second half of 2010, while sellers can expect fewer offers for their homes, says one of Canada’s leading real estate brokers.

“Accurate pricing is going to be really key,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.

In its latest housing survey, Royal LePage said Wednesday the real estate market will start to slow in the second half of 2010 with the number of sales expected to fall compared with the hot activity earlier in the year.

“I would say if you’re a seller, the first thing you should expect is fewer multiple offers on your home,” Soper said.

Sellers who try to squeeze extra money out of their homes will likely have their homes “languish” on the market, unless they’re exceptional properties, he said.

“I believe we are through the highly volatile spiking of prices and activity levels, both up and down,” Soper said.

“We’ll see a much a more stable, but frankly less exciting in a good way, real estate market in the next 18 months,” he said.

The Canadian housing market has been a strong pillar under the economic recovery in Canada, mainly because of low mortgage rates and positive consumer confidence. However, interest rate increases and stiffer bank lending rules have taken some of the steam out of the sector since the early part of the year.

Soper said a lot of buyers were frustrated by a tight supply and “over-exuberant competition,” particularly in the 2010 first quarter, but that’s easing with increased listings.

In the first six months of 2010, about half of real estate transactions involved first-time buyers, he said.

“It took a while for sellers to get comfortable that the recovery from the recession was real. We had an all-time record number of new homes come on the market in the first quarter of 2010. It started to impact prices in the second half (of 2010).”

Derek Burleton, vice-president and deputy chief economist at TD Bank Financial Group, said the decline in homes sales is expected to accelerate and selling prices will also go down.

“The market is frothy and it’s going to come back down to earth for the usual reasons,” he said.

In the survey, Royal LePage said some markets will see a decline in home prices and sales volumes toward the end of 2010 but that should be seen more as a reaction to the highs reached late last year rather than a major slowdown.

Prices for detached bungalows and two-storey houses were up about nine per cent in the April-June quarter, compared with the same time last year. Condominiums were up 7.3 per cent.

Royal LePage is forecasting that by the end of 2010, home prices will rise an average 6.8 per cent over last year, while the number of home sales will increase by just over one per cent from 2009. http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/741919

By year end, the broker expects home price appreciation to average 6.8 percent year over year to C$342,000 ($325,714), while home sales will increase by about 1 percent to 470,000 units compared to 465,251 units in 2009, Royal LePage said.

That compares with double-digit price appreciation and sales growth during the peak of the Canadian housing boom.

“This should not be interpreted as a severe correction but rather a natural reaction to the market having peaked quite early this year.”

Overall, the broker expects the market to be supported by firm consumer confidence and a healthy job environment. Home prices in markets with strong local economies, such as Alberta, are expected to keep rising.

The average price of a detached bungalow in Canada climbed 9 percent to C$331,868 from a year earlier, while standard two-story homes rose 8.7 percent to C$367,835. Condominiums rose 7.3 percent to C$230,014.

In the second quarter, St. John’s, Newfoundland, reported the sharpest price increases, up an average 18.4 percent to 19.6 percent across three housing types, spurred by its robust oil sector.

Vancouver and Toronto, two of the country’s biggest markets, continued to show firm gains, though both are also expected to experience downward pressure in prices for the balance of the year.

Detached bungalows led the strong gains in Vancouver, up 19.1 percent in the quarter to C$905,000, while other housing types rose between 16.6 percent to 17.6 percent.

Greater Toronto home prices rose an average 7.7 to 11.4 percent year over year, with detached bungalows reaching an average price of C$481,933 in the second quarter. http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/07072010/6/finance-canada-home-prices-sales-stabilizing-2nd-half.html

Canada enjoyed another big month for employment in June, churning out a whopping 93,200 new jobs — almost all in Ontario and Quebec and all in the services sector.

The strong performance brings the jobless rate to 7.9 per cent, the first time it has been under eight per cent since the depths of the recession in January 2009.

The Canadian dollar rose sharply after the Statistics Canada report. A few minutes before the release, the loonie was trading overseas just below 96 cents US and jumped more than half a cent after the jobs report came out.

Canada’s dollar was at 96.71 cents US shortly before the official open of trading Friday, up about a cent from the previous close of 95.79 cents

With the employment gains in June, the Canadian economy has recouped almost all the jobs that were lost during the economic contraction that began in the fall of 2008.

But Statistics Canada noted that the unemployment rate remains well elevated above the 6.2 per cent that existed in October 2008 because many more Canadians have since joined the labour force.

Still, the quickly improving labour market likely gives the Bank of Canada all the evidence it needs to raise its key interest rates by another quarter-point to 0.75 per cent on July 20 in order to keep inflation in line.

There were a number of surprises in the Statistics Canada report.

Economists had expected a modest pick-up in the range of 15,000 new jobs because several economic indicators, including retail sales, exports and building permits, have been weak since March.

Also, the 109,000 additional jobs created in April suggested a pay-back was in order.

The other surprise was that the jobs were all concentrated in Ontario and Quebec, despite the fact that manufacturing actually shed workers during the month.

Ontario gained 60,300 workers, slicing the province’s unemployment rate 0.6 points to 8.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, Quebec gained 30,400 new jobs, bringing its unemployment rate to 7.8 per cent.

This was accomplished without any help from the manufacturing sector, a mainstay in both provinces, as factories actually shed 14,300 jobs overall in June.

All of the new jobs were in the services, including retail and wholesale trade, business building and other support services, health care, social assistance and other services, such as auto repair and personal care.

The agency said the new jobs were split between full-time and part-time, with more than half private sector.

There was also a big increase in student employment — 63,000 more last month than was the case in June last year.

However, there were setbacks. There were 10,200 fewer working in the goods producing industries last month, with losses in the factories sector leading the way.

Regionally, other provinces didn’t fare a well as Canada’s two most populous, with most recording slight gains and Newfoundland and New Brunswick outright job losses.