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People may be committed to another home. They may have lost their jobs in recent oilpatch layoffs. They may be concerned about the future. Maybe they’re just testing the market. Lurie said it’s hard to speculate at this time the reasons for the rise in new listings from a year ago.

“We have to keep in mind that last year we didn’t have very many new listings come onto the market,” she said. “That’s partly why you see that big increase in percentage.”

The impact to the overall resale housing market of increased listings is relative to what is happening in sales activity, added Lurie.

“That’s the one area I’m looking at. If listings go up and the demand is there, it doesn’t necessarily cause that rise in supply. It keeps market conditions relatively balanced,” she said. “However, if that pullback continues in demand — we’ve seen it, you’re starting to see that those sales are coming off and coming off at fairly strong rates at this point — what could happen is if you have the listings rise it gives more choice in the market but because of that if the demand isn’t there that can impact obviously that balance in the market and could push it closer towards that buyer’s territory.

“If that demand falls and that pace of fall continues, and you still have these listings and they don’t tend to ease off, it impacts the balance in the market and obviously influences pricing as well.”

Soper said the Bank of Canada’s drop this week in its trend-setting interest rate, to 0.75 per cent from one per cent, should stimulate the housing market from coast-to-coast.

“The degree the market responds really depends on the trading area we’re talking about,” he said. “In areas of the country where lower oil prices can actually be seen as an economic stimulus, such as Ontario, we believe it will have a significant impact on activity and price levels. In areas of the country, such as Alberta, where lower oil prices are clearly a drag on the economy, we think its impact will be more muted. However, it will still have a positive impact.”

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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