Canadian housing was bogged down by high interest rates through 2022 and 2023, but the expectation was that rate cuts would entice buyers back into the market. However, that’s not been the case, with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reporting a 0.1% dip in sales between March and April 2025.
While sales remained essentially flat, it still marked an improvement in what has been a months-long downtrend. In March, for example, transactions were down 4.8%. They were also down 20% from a “recent high” reached in November 2024.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, April’s sales were also down 9.8% on a year-over-year basis.
“At this point, the 2025 Canadian housing story would best be described as a return to the quiet markets we’ve experienced since 2022, with tariff uncertainty taking the place of high interest rates in keeping buyers on the sidelines,” says CREA’s Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart in a press release. “Given the increasing potential for a rough economic patch ahead, the risk going forward will be if an average number of people trying to sell their homes turns into a large number of people who have to sell their homes, and that’s something we have not seen in decades.”
For the time being, it seems that sellers are erring on the side of caution, and new listings slipped 1% month over month. That puts the national sales-to-new listings ratio at 46.8%, which is up from the 46.4% recorded in March. “The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9%, with readings between 45% and 65% generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions,” says CREA.
A ratio below 45% points to a buyers’ market, which suggests that we are not far off from buyers’ territory.
Total active listings – both new and existing – reached 183,000 properties on the market last month, and that figure is up 14.3% year over year , “but still below the long-term average for that time of the year of around 201,000 listings.”
Months of inventory, at 5.1 months, was unchanged between March and April, and that figure is in line with the long-term average of five months of inventory, says CREA. “Based on one standard deviation above and below that long-term average, a sellers’ market would be below 3.6 months and a buyers’ market would be above 6.4 months.”
According to CREA, inventory is higher in BC and Ontario, but tight everywhere else.
Prices also trended downwards, with the national composite HPI falling 1.2% month over month in April. Without adjusting for seasonal effects, the index was down 3.6% year over year. The national average home price, also not seasonally adjusted, was $679,866 – down 3.9% year over year.
