Home sales across Canada during July were up 3.8% month-over-month and up 6.6% year-over-year, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
The number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems rose by 3.8% from June to July. However, the number of newly listed properties was up by a scant 0.1% on a month-over-month basis. There were 202,500 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of July, up 10.1% from one year earlier, as well as 4.4 months of inventory on a national basis.
The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $672,784 in July, edging up by 0.6% from one year earlier. The MLS Home Price Index was unchanged month-over-month and was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis, while the actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price edged up 0.6% on a year-over-year basis.
“Activity continues to pick up through the transition from the spring to the summer market, which is the opposite of a normal year, but this has not been a normal year,” said Valérie Paquin, CREA chairperson. “Typically, we see a burst of new listings right at the beginning of September to kick off the fall market, but it seems like buyers are increasingly returning to the market.”
“With sales posting a fourth consecutive increase in July, and almost 4% at that, the long-anticipated post-inflation crisis pickup in housing seems to have finally arrived,” added Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “Looking ahead a little bit, it will be interesting to see how buyers react to the burst of new supply that typically shows up in the first half of September.”
