Canadian National Home Sales Increase Month-Over-Month in September

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported today (Friday 10-15-21) that Canadian national home sales edged higher between August and September 2021. According to the CREA, Canadian home sales rose 0.9% on a monthly basis in September — the first month-over-month increase since March 2021. The actual, not seasonally adjusted, activity declined -17.5% year-over-year.

The number of newly listed properties declined by -1.6% from August to September.

The MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) rose 1.7% month-over-month and was up 21.5% year-over-year. The actual, not seasonally adjusted, national average sale price posted a 13.9% year-over-year gain in September.

In remarks prepared for today’s CREA report, Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist said, “The small changes observed in most key housing market metrics over the last couple of months suggest that the worst of the pandemic-related volatility we’ve experienced since last spring is in the rear-view mirror at this point.”

Cathcart went onto say, “Having said that, given we are still stuck at around 2 months of inventory nationally, the thing to keep a close eye on going forward will be the behavior of prices. While the acceleration in home prices we saw in September was more than most would have expected, the fact that prices are now moving back in that direction is not surprising.”