Home sales across Canada were down in March by 4.8% from the previous month and were down 9.3% from one year earlier, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). National home sales are now down 20% from their recent high recorded last November while sales were at their lowest level for March since 2009.
There were 165,800 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of March, up 18.3% from one year earlier, while the new housing supply moved up by 3% month-over-month in March. Combined with the decrease in sales, last month’s national sales-to-new listings ratio fell to 45.9% compared to 49.7% in February. There were 5.1 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of March, the highest level since the early months of the pandemic.
The non-seasonally adjusted National Composite MLS HPI was down 2.1% compared to March 2024 while the non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $678,331 last month, down 3.7% from one year earlier.
“Up until this point, declining home sales have mostly been about tariff uncertainty,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “Going forward, the Canadian housing space will also have to contend with the actual economic fallout. In short order we’ve gone from a slam dunk rebound year to treading water at best.”
Looking ahead, CREA is forecasting 482,673 residential properties to trade hands via Canadian MLS Systems this year, representing a scant 0.02% decline (no change) from 2024. The national average home price is forecast to decrease a slight 0.3% on an annual basis to $687,898 in 2025. As for 2026, national home sales are forecast to improve by 2.9% to 496,487 while the national average home price is forecast to edge up by 1.2% from 2025 to $696,074 in 2026.
