Canadian Home Sales Resume Downward Trek in January

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported today (2-15-23) that home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems were down 3% on a month-over-month basis. The decline wiped out all of December’s small gains, and homes sales are once again back on the mild downward trend observed since last summer.

CREA reports that the actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in January 2023 came in 37.1% below the second-best January on record in 2022. The January 2023 sales numbers are the lowers for the month since January 2009.

On a month-over-month basis the number of newly listed homes picked up 3% in January. Nevertheless, new listings remain at historically low levels. With the new supply of listed homes in January 2023 hitting the lowest level for January since 2000.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) was down 1.9% between December 2022 and January 2023, continuing the trend that began in the spring of 2022. The HPI is now 15% below its peak level that was reached in February 2022.

CREA is reporting that on a national basis at the end of January there were 4.3 months of inventory available. This is close to where the measure was in the months leading up to the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and is approximately a month below its long-term average of about five months.