Tariff uncertainty foils ‘slam dunk rebound year’ for national home sales: CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association has downgraded its forecast for home sales activity in 2025, while the number of homes that changed hands across the country in March was down 9.3% compared with a year ago.

The association says Canadian home sales in March also fell 4.8% on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis from February, as potential buyers stayed on the sidelines amid concerns over tariffs and economic uncertainty.

CREA is now expecting a total of 482,673 residential properties to be sold throughout the year, essentially unchanged from 2024, but marking a steep cut from its previous forecast in January of an 8.6% increase from last year.

The national average home price is forecast to decrease a slight 0.3% on an annual basis to $687,898 in 2025, which would be around $30,000 lower than predicted in early January.

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that in short order, Canada’s housing market has “gone from a slam dunk rebound year to treading water at best.”

In March, the national average sale price fell 3.7% compared with a year earlier to $678,331.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

Sammy Hudes is a reporter with The Canadian Press, a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.