Canadian Existing Home Sales Inch Lower Month-Over-Month and Year-Over-Year in November

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) announced on Thursday (12-14-23) that home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems declined 0.9% from October to November. This is the smallest decline recorded since July. The actual, not seasonally adjusted number of transactions came in 0.9% lower year-over-year.

CREA is reporting that on a month-over-month basis, the number of newly listed homes fell 1.8% in November. This follows a 2.2% decline in October. With new listings down by more than sales in November, the national sales-to-new listings ratio tightened modestly to 49.8% compared to 49.4% in October. It was the first time this measure has increased since April. (The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 55.1%.)

At the end of November, there was 4.2 months of inventory on national basis. This is up slightly from the 4.1 months reported at the end of October. As such, CREA says this measure also looks to be stabilizing, and is still almost a full month below its long-term average of near 5 months.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) declined 1.1% month-over-month in November, a reflection of softer market conditions since the end of summer. The actual, not seasonally adjusted national home price was $646,134 in November, up 2% from a year earlier.