OTTAWA — Home sales in February fell to their lowest level in more than a year as homebuyers stayed on the sidelines amid the uncertainty created by the trade war with the United States, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Monday.
Actual home sales in February were down 10.4 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, home sales in February were down 9.8 per cent compared with January.
“The moment tariffs were first announced on Jan. 20, a gap opened between home sales recorded this year and last," said Shaun Cathcart, senior economist at CREA.
"This trend continued to widen throughout February, leading to a significant, but hardly surprising, drop in monthly activity," he said in a statement.
CREA says it was the lowest level for home sales since November 2023 and the largest month-over-month drop since May 2022.
While most pronounced in the Greater Toronto Area, the fall in sales was fairly broad-based with declines in three quarters of local markets and almost all large markets, it said.
The association also says new listings fell 12.7 per cent month-over-month, following a surprise increase in January.
Total listings were up 13.1 per cent from last year at around 146,000, but still below the long-term average for the time of year of 174,000 listings.
The actual national average sale price of a home sold in February was $668,097, down 3.3 per cent from a year ago.
CREA's own home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, fell 0.8 per cent from January and was down one per cent from last year.
As with listings, price softness was most notable in the Toronto region, where the index fell 1.5 per cent from last month.
The retreat on prices, combined with another interest rate drop from the Bank of Canada last week, is helping create buying opportunities for some, the association said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.
The Canadian Press
