Canada’s notoriously hot housing market has definitely cooled. The March numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association show sales declined 4.8% compared to February, 9.3% compared to March of last year, and 20% compared to the record high reported in November.
Home prices have also been slipping. The national average price fell 1.0% month-over-month in March and is down 3.7% from a year earlier. It now sits at $678,000. CREA’s preferred pricing measurement, the National Composite Home Price Index, fell 2.1% compared to March 2024. Declines in the country’s two biggest and busiest markets – southern B.C. and the greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario – had an outsized influence on the national averages. CREA reports prices have actually pushed higher across much of the Prairies, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
Housing supply continues to build across the country, rising 3.0% over February. The increase has pushed the sales-to-new listings ratio to 46%, putting it right on the doorstep of what CREA considers a buyers’ market.
CREA blames the U.S. trade war for keeping buyers out of the market.
“Up until this point, declining home sales have mostly been about tariff uncertainty. Going forward, the Canadian housing space will also have to contend with the actual economic fallout,” said CREA’s Senior Economist, Shaun Cathcart.
That uncertainty also has the Bank of Canada stepping to the sidelines. The central bank left its trendsetting policy rate unchanged at 2.75% for April.