Home sales on the rise again across Canada

National home sales jumped for the fifth month in a row in August, eking out a 1.1% increase from July as a slow national recovery continued.

New sales figures released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Monday morning showed that the Canada-wide market had reported its best August since 2021, when activity surged because of rock-bottom interest rates.

The latest month-over-month increase means sales are now up by 12.5% since March, suggesting there’s still plenty of opportunity for buyers even amid wider economic unease and uncertainty over the interest rate outlook.

Benchmark prices remained largely flat, posting a 0.1% decline from July and coming in at $687,300 for the month.

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the forecast appeared to be brightening as the real estate and mortgage industries gear up for fall homebuying season. “Activity has continued to gradually pick up steam over the last five months, but the experience from a year ago suggest that trend could accelerate this fall,” he said in prepared remarks.

“Part of what drives sales at different points in the year is the availability of a lot of fresh property listings for buyers to buy. For the fall market, that always happens right at the beginning of September, and this year was no exception.”

He said sales could “really pick up” in the next month or so – especially if the Bank of Canada decides to lower its benchmark rate at this week’s meeting, scheduled for September 17.

Listings were also higher for the month as inventory continued hitting the market. New supply was up 2.6% compared with August, although CREA highlighted that the sales-to-new-listings ratio fell for the first time in five months – dropping to 51.2%, down from 52% in July.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA), one of Canada’s largest housing markets, posted lower sales for August compared with July. Still, that was “more than offset,” CREA said, by improved performances in major markets including Greater Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal.

CMP

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