Photo: The Canadian Press

Home sales in December hit an all-time record for the month to end what was also a record year, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday.

December sales were up 47.2% compared with December 2019, the largest year-over-year gain in monthly sales in 11 years, the association said.

Sales for the month were also up 7.2% compared with November.

The record-shattering December marked the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year home sales hikes, after the COVID-19 pandemic led to shutdowns across the country in the key March to May home sales season.

“This sweeping strength in sales heavily suggests that what’s driving this market are broad overall factors, and not local economic factors. Specifically, the plunge in interest rates last year and the pandemic-driven move to upgrade have lifted all markets,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets Economic Research, in a client note about CREA’s report.

“Suffice it to say, it wasn’t at all obvious that this is how things would play out 10 months ago.”

For 2020 as a whole, CREA said some 551,392 homes were sold, up 12.6% from 2019, and an annual record. In December, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of home sales was 714,516, topping 700,000 for the first time.