Ottawa, ON, October 15, 2019 – Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show national home sales were up slightly in September 2019.

Highlights:

• National home sales rose 0.6% month-over-month (m-o-m) in September.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was up 15.5% year-over-year (y-o-y).
• The number of newly listed properties edged back by 0.6% m-o-m.
• The MLS^® Home Price Index (HPI) advanced by 0.5% m-o-m and 1.3% y-o-y.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was up 5.3% y-o-y.

Home sales recorded via Canadian MLS^® Systems advanced for the seventh consecutive month, raising them 18% above the six-year low reached in February 2019 but leaving them about 8% below highs reached in 2016 and 2017. (Chart A)

Activity was up in slightly more than half of all local markets, led by Greater Vancouver (GVA) and the Fraser Valley (which together constitute the Lower Mainland of British Columbia).

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity was up 15.5% year-over-year, reflecting the combination of slow sales in September 2018 and a rebound in activity this year. Transactions were up from year-ago levels in all of Canada’s largest urban markets, including the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, the Greater Toronto area (GTA), Hamilton-Burlington, Ottawa and Montreal.

“National sales activity has begun to rebound in recent months,” said Jason Stephen, president of CREA. “That said, all real estate is local, so there’s a lot of variation in the strength of the rebound depending on the housing type, location and price segment. Nobody knows that better than a professional REALTOR^®, your best source for information and guidance when negotiating the sale or purchase of a home,” said Stephen.

“Home sales activity and prices are improving after having weakened significantly in a number of housing markets,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “How long the current rebound continues depends on economic growth, which is being subdued by trade and business investment uncertainties.”

The number of newly listed homes edged back by 0.6%. The small increase in sales combined with the small decline in new supply tightened the national sales-to-new listings ratio to 61.3% in September. This measure has been increasingly rising above its long-term average of 53.6%. At this point, this measure remains in balanced market territory, but is favouring sellers more than buyers.

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