Severe winter weather was blamed for a decline in home sales across Canada during January.
According to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), nationwide home sales were down 5.8% from December and down by 16.2% from January 2025. This occurred as the number of newly listed properties jumped 7.3% on a month-over-month basis.
“The monthly decline in national home sales was driven primarily by less activity in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Southwestern Ontario, suggesting that the story was probably more about a historic winter storm than a downshift in demand,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist.
There were 140,680 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of January, up 4.5% from a year earlier but 11.4% below the long-term average for that time of year. The new supply was driven by about two-thirds of local markets, led by Montreal, Quebec City, Calgary, Greater Vancouver, and Victoria. There were 4.9 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of January 2026, up from 4.6 months at the end of December.
The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $652,941 in January, dipping 2.6% below the same time in 2025. Regionally, prices remain down on a year-over-year basis in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, offsetting gains in other provinces.
“Notwithstanding the chilly start to the year, we continue to expect 2026 will ultimately be defined by pent-up demand from first-time buyers finally seeing a chance to enter the market,” said Cathcart.
