Home sales down almost 10% annually last month: CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in April fell 9.8% compared with the same month last year, as the national housing market has returned “to the quiet markets we’ve experienced since 2022.”

A total of 44,300 residential properties changed hands across Canada last month, down from 49,135 in April 2024.

On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, sales edged down 0.1%.

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said tariff-related uncertainty continues to keep buyers on the sidelines — similar to how high interest rates cooled demand in the second half of 2022 and much of 2023 before the Bank of Canada began cutting rates.

“Given the increasing potential for a rough economic patch ahead, the risk going forward will be if an average number of people trying to sell their homes turns into a large number of people who have to sell their homes — and that’s something we have not seen in decades,” he said in a release.

New listings fell 1% from March, CREA said.

There were 183,000 properties listed for sale across Canada at the end of April, up 14.3% from a year earlier, but still below the long-term average for the month of about 201,000 listings.

The increase in supply is being driven by rising inventories in B.C. and Ontario, while other regions remain tight.

The actual national average sale price of a home sold in April was $679,866, down 3.9% from a year ago. CREA’s home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, declined 1.2% from March.

TD economist Rishi Sondhi called April “another subdued month” for sales.

“Economic uncertainty likely continued to keep potential buyers sidelined,” he said in a note.

“With last month’s soft showing — and weak momentum heading into the quarter — we’re currently tracking another decline in Canadian home sales in Q2 following their sizable first-quarter contraction.”

Last month, CREA downgraded its forecast for 2025, saying sales this year would likely match 2024 levels — a sharp revision from its January outlook for an 8.6% increase.

Sondhi said that could result in more pent-up demand, which had already been building in Ontario and B.C. before the Canada–U.S. trade conflict began.

“History shows that Canadian housing markets can surge after lulls, so if confidence improves later in the year — which is our view — the market could see sales pop,” he said.

“However, Canadian average home price growth is likely to remain a laggard for much of the year, given very loose supply–demand balances in B.C. and Ontario.”