Home sales down 8.4% month over month in June, CREA says

Home sales across Canada fell for the third consecutive month in June as the market continued to slow from its March highs, but the month still set a record, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said Thursday.

The association said sales cooled in 80% of the country’s local markets as 50,810 homes changed hands last month, down 8.4% from 55,497 in May.

However, when compared with a year ago, sales in June rose 13.6% to set a new record for the month.

“While there is still a lot of activity in many housing markets across Canada, things have noticeably calmed down in the last few months,” CREA Cliff Stevenson said in a statement.

“There remains a shortage of supply in many parts of the country, but at least there isn’t the same level of competition among buyers we were seeing a few months ago.”

While the frenzied pace of sales that kicked off 2021 and triggered an all-time record in March are dissipating, CREA’s figures indicate that many markets are still heated.

CREA said 73,402 homes were listed in June, down 0.7% from 73,912 in May.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, 86,632 were newly listed in June, up 1.4% from 85,421 a year earlier.

The biggest increase in new listings between May and June came in the Halifax Dartmouth region, which saw 53.9% more properties hit the market.

Meanwhile, the Quebec and Saguenay areas saw the most dramatic month-over-month drops with new listings falling by 28.1% and 26.3%, respectively.

On a year-over-year basis, the most significant decline in new listings came in Saguenay, where there were 47.2% fewer homes to choose from, while the largest increase was in the Niagara region of Ontario, where a 34.3% spike was seen.

Across the country, CREA said the actual national average price of a home sold in June was a little over $679,000, up 25.9% from $539,182 a year ago.

Vancouver had the highest prices with the average home selling for $1,199,984, up 14.3% from $1,049,475 the year before.

The Greater Toronto Area trailed at $1,089,560, up 17% from $930,869 in June 2020.

CREA said year-over-year price growth is averaging around 30% in Ontario, 20% in B.C., 15% in Manitoba and 10% in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

While CREA’s senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the theme of the summer and many housing markets is “slowly getting back to normal,” he admitted that “it’s a long road back to normal.”