Canada’s housing market continued its cooling-off trend in May, as both home sales and new listings suffered a decline.
According to the latest data published by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), home sales across the country fell 7.4% month-over-month in May, following an 11% drop in April. Nearly 80% of housing markets across Canada noted some form of decline last month, particularly in the larger real estate regions. However, despite this, real estate activity still remained historically elevated, and is 103.6% higher compared to year-ago levels.
Similarly, the number of newly listed homes dropped 6.4% between April and May, with a decline in listings across 70% of all local Canadian markets. The national sales-to-new-listings ratio stood at 75.4% last month, which is slightly below the 76.2% recorded in April. According to CREA, there were 2.1 months of inventory by the end of May, which is up from the historically-low 1.7 months noted in March.
In the meantime, the national average home price stood at $688,000 last month, marking an increase of 38.4% from May 2020. Likewise, the Aggregate Composite MLS Home Price Index rose 1% month-over-month, largely due to a deceleration in price growth of single-family homes.
Information for this briefing was found via CREA. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
