OTTAWA – Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show national home sales edged up slightly on a month-over-month basis in June 2023.
Highlights:
- National home sales edged up 1.5 per cent month-over-month in June.
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 4.7 per cent above June 2022.
- The number of newly listed properties rose 5.9 per cent month-over-month.
- The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) climbed 2 per cent month-over-month but was still down 4.5 per cent year-over-year.
- The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price posted a 6.7 per cent year-over-year increase in June.
Home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems posted a 1.5per cent increase between May and June 2023, smaller increase than in April and May.
Sales were up in June in a little over half of all local markets, with gains in British Columbia and Alberta offsetting fewer sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in June 2023 came in 4.7 per cent above June 2022. This was the largest year-over-year national sales increase in two years.
“Housing markets appear to be stabilizing heading into the summer following some big ups and downs over the last year,” said Larry Cerqua, Chair of CREA. “Most importantly, the recovery in new listings over the last few months will give buyers more choice and should help to slow price growth over the second half of the year.”
“With sales levelling off near historically average levels and new listings finally starting to play catch up, housing markets appear to be settling down,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “History suggests the price side of things will respond to this with only a slight lag. Add to that the recent Bank of Canada rate hikes, and we can probably expect price growth to moderate in the months ahead, likely still with some degree of upward pressure, but less than in the last three months.”
The number of newly listed homes was up 5.9 per cent on a month-over-month basis in June. Building on gains of 3.1 per cent in April and 7.6 per cent in May, new listings have gone from a 20-year low in March to closer to (but still below) average heading into the summer.
With new listings outperforming sales in June, the sales-to-new listings ratio eased to 63.6 per cent compared to 66.4 per cent in May and a recent peak of 68.3 per cent in April. That said, the measure remains well above the long-term average for the measure of 55.2 per cent.
There were 3.1 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of June 2023, unchanged from the end of May and down more than a full month from the most recent peak at the end of January. The long-term average for this measure is about five months.
The Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) climbed 2 per cent on a month-over-month basis in June 2023—a large increase for a single month on the heels of similar gains in April and May. It was also once again very broadly based, with a monthly increase in prices between May and June observed in most local markets.
The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI now sits 4.5 per cent below year-ago levels, the smallest decline since November 2022.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average home price was $709,218 in June 2023, up 6.7 per cent from June 2022. The national average price is heavily impacted by the GTA and British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. Excluding the GTA and Greater Vancouver from the calculation cuts more than $130,000 from the national average price.
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national sales information from MLS® Systems from the previous month.
Further information can be found at http://crea.ca/statistics.
