Canadian Home Sales Dip Month-Over-Month in September

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported on Friday (10-14-22) that home sales recorded over the Canadian MLS® System dipped from August to September by 3.9%. CREA notes that from May through August, month-over-month declines have been progressively growing smaller. The September result marked a slight increase in the current sales slowdown that began with the Bank of Canada’s first-rate hike back in March.

The number of newly listed homes declined month-over-month in September by 0.8%. This built on the 6.1% decline in July and a 4.9% drop recorded in August. CREA reports that it was split evenly between markets where new supply was down in September and those where it increased, with the largest decline in the GTA offset by the largest gain in BC’s Lower Mainland.

With sales and new listings seeing only minor changes in September, the sales-to-new-listings ratio eased to 52% compared to 53.6% in in August. The September 2022 reading for the national sales-to new-listing ratio was back on par with those in June and July, and only slightly below its long-term average of 55.1%.

There were 3.7 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of September 2022, up modestly from 3.5 months at the end of August. CREA notes that while the number of months of inventory is still well below the long-term average of about five months, it is also up quite a bit from the all-time low of 1.7 months recorded at the beginning of 2022.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average home price was $640,479 in September 2022, down 6.6% from the same month last year. The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI was still up by 3.3% on a year-over-year basis in September, well off the near 30% record year-over-year gains logged in early 2022.