Canadian Home Sales Slow Further in May 2022

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported on Tuesday (6-15-22) that national homes sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems declined by -8.6% between April and May 2022. This builds on a larger drop recorded in April, leaving monthly activity at pre-COVID levels recorded in the second half of 2019 and only slightly above the 10-year average.

CREA reported that sales were down in three-quarters of all local markets, led by a number of larger census metropolitan areas (CMAs) including those in the Lower Mainland, Calgary, Edmonton, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and Ottawa.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in May 2022 came in -21.7% below the record for that month set last year. At a little over 50,000 units sold, the May 2022 sales figure was very close to the 10-year average for that month.

With sales down -8.6% and new listings up 4.5%, on a month over month basis, in May, the sales-to-new listings ratio eased back to 57.5%—its lowest level since April 2019. It was also not far off the long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio of 55.1%.