Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) marked National Housing Day by launching a call for entries to the 2010 CMHC Housing Awards Program, which recognizes private sector-led best practices in affordable housing.

“National Housing Day is an opportunity to showcase solutions that address affordable housing needs in Canada,” said Karen Kinsley, President of CMHC. “Today’s call for entries to the 2010 CMHC Housing Awards is an invitation to the private sector to bring forward innovative initiatives to improve affordable housing so that these ideas may be shared with communities across Canada.”

The Housing Awards Program was created in 1988 to identify, recognize, showcase and share best practices that have helped to improve the quality, choice and affordability of housing in Canada. The program honours the people and organizations creating affordable housing solutions across the country. Applications must represent private sector-led initiatives that have demonstrated a range of affordable housing solutions to meet the needs of the communities they serve. The deadline for submissions is April 16, 2010.

This program is just one way CMHC advances affordable housing solutions across Canada. CMHC also has an Affordable Housing Centre, which has a team of housing experts dedicated to working with individuals and organisations from the private, non-profit and public sectors to help them develop their affordable housing projects. They offer project-specific expertise, help determine if a housing project is financially viable, identify resources and other potential partners, and share information on what has worked in other communities.

The  Affordable Housing Centre website offers a comprehensive inventory of information, tools and resources, including a collection of more than 100 affordable housing project profiles highlighting successful approaches that have been implemented in communities across Canada.

As Canada’s national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 60 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable, and affordable homes — homes that will continue to create vibrant and healthy communities and cities across the country.

All the Canadian newspapers are aflutter because the Canadian Real Estate Association released their monthly report today, with positive news. I think people tend to get over excited about these releases whether positive or negative, but, here is the gist of it.

Resales of existing Canadian homes showed continuing improvements in in May, with both the number of transactions and the national average price on the rise. The national average sale price in May hit the highest monthly level on record, at $319,757, which was up four-tenths of a percentage point from the previous record in May 2008.

The real-estate association said the dollar value of sales through its members reached $11.4 billion in May, up 10 per cent from the previous month and more than 50 per cent above the low of $7.5 billion in January.

The association said the the rebound in activity was led in some of the most expensive local markets in Canada and that had the effect up pushing the national average price upward.

Seasonally adjusted sales were up on a monthly basis in about 70% of local markets. Monthly activity gains in Toronto (9%), Calgary (25%), Montreal (10%), Vancouver (8%), and Edmonton (12%) contributed most to the overall increase in monthly activity.

“Inventory levels are still high in many markets, but fewer new listings and rising sales activity suggests that the selection of homes available for sale may shrink as the year progresses. The supply of homes up for sale needs to be drawn down further before average price increases become more widespread among local markets,” said CREA economist Gregory Klump.

http://www.edmontonrealestateblog.com/my_weblog/2009/06/edmonton-brings-up-the-national-average.html