The CREA said seasonally adjusted home sales totalled nearly 48,686 in July, 3.5 per cent lower than 50,459 in June and off 28 per cent from their peak in March
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has said home sales cooled for a fourth month in a row in July as new supply dropped nearly three quarters of all markets across the country.
The association said Monday that seasonally adjusted home sales totalled nearly 48,686 in July, 3.5 per cent lower than 50,459 in June and off 28 per cent from their peak in March.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, home sales totalled 53,870, 15.2 per cent lower than 63,5000 during the previous July.
Despite the slowdown, it was the second-busiest July on record.
Led by Edmonton and Calgary, sales were down in two-thirds of all local markets. CREA says that might be because sales just started falling in those two cities. Montreal sales ticked up after moderating at the start of the year.
Even though sales continue to drop, prices have gone up. The national MLS Home Price Index advanced 0.6 per cent from June and is up 22.2 per cent year over year (YOY).
Ontario leads the way in year-over-year price growth at around 30 per cent, driven mostly by gains outside of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The slowdown we’ve seen in home sales over the last few months has not been surprising, given that the level of activity we were seeing back in March was unsustainable, said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist.
But we are not returning to normal, we are only returning to where we were before COVID, which was a far cry from normal. The problem of high housing demand amid low supply has not gone anywhere – it’s arguably worse, he said.
Prices remain elevated due to historically low mortgage rates as well as a lack of inventory for sale.
The number of newly listed homes declined 8.8 per cent in July compared to June, with the GTA, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary leading the way in declines.
The national sales-to-new listings ratio was 74 per cent in July 2021, compared to the long-term average of 54.7 per cent. The 2.3 months of inventory is half of the long-term average.