Canada Housing Research Brief

Momentum grows as borrowing costs have likely peaked. In April, national home sales surged 11.3 per cent monthly, helping the average price of a single-family home increase by 1.9 per cent. This is the second consecutive monthly gain as it appears that Canada’s housing market is beginning to stabilize on the back of the Bank of Canada’s conditional interest rate pause. While the number of newly-listed properties inched up 1.6 per cent monthly in April, supply remained at a 20-year low, as there have been no indications of forced selling amid rapidly rising borrowing costs. With sales gains vastly outpacing new listings, the sales-to-new listings ratio jumped to 70.2 per cent, indicating the market is once again favouring sellers. Sales and price gains were broad-based, but were dominated by Vancouver and Toronto. Despite promising signs emerging, on an annual basis, the average price remained down 12.8 per cent as rapidly rising interest rates curbed buyer enthusiasm through 2022.