Canadian Home Sales Slow in October but Home Prices Continue to Rise

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is reporting that home sales in Canada dropped -0.7%, on a seasonally adjusted basis in October. This after reaching a new monthly sales record in September. When not seasonally adjusted, year-over-year sales activity was 32.1% higher. For the first 10 months of 2020, transactions involving existing homes total 461,818, or 8.6% higher from the comparable year ago period. This is despite the fact month-over-month sales fell in 14.3% in March and by 56.8 in April. CREA said data indicate there were just 2.5 months of inventory across the country at the end of October, or the lowest reading on record for this measure. CREA’s adjusted house-price index rose 1% in October from the previous month and increased nearly 11% on a one-year basis.