Canada’s home sales slump paused in April, according to the latest data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
Before we take a deeper look into why, here’s an overview of the latest Canadian housing market data:
- National home sales were essentially unchanged (-0.1%) in April compared to March and actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly sales came in 9.8% below April 2024.
- The number of newly listed properties fell 1% in April compared to March.
- The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI)— the most advanced and accurate tool to gauge a neighbourhood’s home price levels and trends—declined 1.2% month-over-month and was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis.
- The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was $679,866, down 3.9% since April 2024.
A Break in Declining Home Sales
Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist said the month-over-month declines dating to December meant a cumulative drop of about 20% and remain about 10% lower than home sales levels in April 2024.
A total of 44,300 residential properties were sold across Canada last month, compared with 49,135 last year.
Looking back historically, as seen in the chart above, there have been ebbs and flows to home sales levels (notice the dips during the summer and fall 2022 when interest rates were on the rise, as well as near the end of 2023 before the Bank of Canada started cutting those rates).
“The difference this time is there is a lot more inventory this time than there was back then,” he said, during the CREA Housing Market Report (available to watch below).
Of course, consumers aren’t exactly confident these days in the economy, which is heavily impacted by tariff uncertainty.
Homes on the Market Drop in April
New listings declined by 1% month-over-month in April. As for total listings, there were 183,000 properties listed for sale at the end of April 2025, according to CREA, up 14.3% from a year earlier, but still below the long-term average of around 201,000 listings for this time.
This combined with flat sales meant the national sales-to-new listings ratio climbed to 46.8% compared to 46.4% in March. (Readings between 45% and 65% are generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions.)
