The Canadian Real Estate Association raised its forecast for home sales this year, helped by economic fundamentals and falling mortgage rates.

The improved outlook for the year came as CREA reported home sales in August were up five per cent compared with the same month last year.

The organization said Monday that national home sales are now projected to rise to 482,000 units this year, up five per cent from 2018.

In June, CREA predicted sales to climb 1.2 per cent to 463,000 this year.

B次元官网网址淓conomic fundamentals underpinning housing activity remain strong outside of the Prairies and Newfoundland and Labrador, the association said.

B次元官网网址淢ore importantly for home buyers and housing markets, longer-term mortgage rates have been declining. Among those that have declined is the Bank of CanadaB次元官网网址檚 benchmark five-year rate used by banks to qualify mortgage applicants.B次元官网网址�

Home sales weakened last year after Ottawa tightened mortgage qualification rules at the start of 2018 and mortgage rates started to rise.

However, the rates on fixed-rate mortgages started to decline earlier this year and helped fuel a pick up in home sales.

In August, home sales were up in most of the countryB次元官网网址檚 largest markets, including B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Lower Mainland, Calgary, Winnipeg, the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and Montreal.

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Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said a solid job market and population flows persist across much of the country, amplified by a drop in five-year fixed mortgage rates since late-2018.

B次元官网网址淵et again, the housing bears are going to have to take their medicine,B次元官网网址� Kavcic wrote in a report. B次元官网网址淭his momentum should continue into the fall.B次元官网网址�

On a month-over-month basis, home sales in August were up 1.4 per cent, the sixth consecutive move higher.

Sales were up in slightly more than half of all local markets, with gains led by Winnipeg and an improvement in B.C.B次元官网网址檚 Fraser Valley.

The actual national average price for a home sold in August was about $493,500, up almost four per cent from the same month last year.

Excluding the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver regions, the national average price was less than $393,000, while the year-over-year gain was 2.7 per cent.

The Canadian Press

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