Canada Housing Research Brief

Housing market holds stable in March. Home sales activity and positive pricing pressure will gain some momentum in the coming months with the arrival of the spring season. Positive seasonal impacts, along with potential interest rate cuts over the second half of the year, will prompt some buyers to return from the sidelines to capitalize on lower prices. Despite this, housing activity was largely unchanged in March. Home sales inched up 0.5 per cent monthly, while the median price of a single-family home dipped 0.1 per cent, translating into a 1.6 per cent year-over-year gain. The number of newly-listed properties declined 1.6 per cent, which pushed up the sales-to-new listings ratio to 57.4 per cent, an indication of a balanced housing market. While the official March numbers were quite flat, preliminary estimates suggest that activity ramped up in April.