Canada’s housing rut continues as a wave of unprecedented seller activity hits the market. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) data shows the price of a typical home fell to a multi-year low in October. Despite lower interest rates and rising buyer incentives, sales fell short, reversing the progress made last year toward a recovery. Meanwhile, new listings hit a record high as inventory floods the market.
Canadian Real Estate Prices Continue To Fall, At 4-Year Low
Canadian Real Estate Prices: The price of a typical home across Canada.
Source: CREA; Better Dwelling.
Canadian real estate prices continued to slip last month. The price of a typical home fell 0.4% (-$2,700) to $679,900 in October, down 3% (-$21,000) from last year and 20.2% (-$171,700) from the March 2022 peak. Prices are now at a 4-year low, last seen in March 2021. Most of the pandemic-era price gains have reversed—though prices are still high enough that affordability is still strained.
Canadian Home Sales Fall, Remain Below 2019 Levels
Canadian real estate sales for the month of October.
Source: CREA; Better Dwelling.
Canadian real estate sales fell, erasing progress made last year. There were 42,068 sales in October, down 4.3% from 2024 and 29.1% below the month’s 2020 record. Volumes aren’t just off the peak—they’re historically low, coming in 6.1% below the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline. Even by pre-pandemic standards, it was a quiet month for buyers.
Canadian Real Estate Inventory Hits A New Record High
Canadian real estate new listings for the month of October.
Source: CREA; Better Dwelling.
Buyers may be taking a break, but sellers showed up in full force last month. October saw 79,225 new listings, a 4.3% increase from last year, setting a record for the month. The volume isn’t just high—it’s exceptionally high, but not surprising. Earlier this month, Toronto’s real estate board reported a significant surge in inventory, and as Canada’s largest market, it sets the trend—typically by several years. Smaller cities may want to take note.
A surge in listings and fewer sales pushed October’s sales-to-new listings ratio (SNLR) down to 53%—the lowest for the month since 2012, and 5 points below last year. Traditionally, that would signal a balanced market where prices see little movement, but that’s rarely the case for October at the national level. In 2022, an SNLR of 56% still produced the second-largest monthly price drop on record. Historically, October has never posted price growth with an SNLR below 55%.
Canadian home prices are still falling, but remain 25.6% above where they started the decade. Despite easing financing conditions and a surge of buyer incentives, sales continue to decline, and inventory remains at an elevated level. Affordability has improved slightly, but remains near multi-decade lows, fueling bank warnings that this correction will take years to play out.
The fact is that canada just repeated the same bad policy and greed that created the 2008 gfc. The people in central canada and bc used their houses as atms, and banks willingly let them do it.
The bigger issue is all of this is just a lagging indicator. We know the liberals spent most of 24, and now 25 trying to tell us its not the same, its because of ‘supply’. Catney did an interview ifor the star where he said that several times.
Now, i dont have an oxford phd, nor did i rund two central banks, but i can tell you this is nonsense.
Even in his interview the real.culprit came up, which is price. They said, why were people building tiny condos to sell when the people wanted houses. He and the interviewer agreed that it was greed. However thats only partly true. The city, the province, and the feds, the boc, and banks all knew by 2018 that a house in toronto was 3-4 times what a mean incomw could afford. However, instead of letting the market destroy them all, they decided to make it easier and easier for ‘investors’ to buy up all these condos no one wants?
Lets be clear, carney was trudeau and freelands main advisor from 2020 on. So he is complicit.
Now, after freeland effectively used the chmc to prop up investors, subsidizibg bad mortgages and worse supply, we now see that even a fully complicit govt cant buy its way out of this.
In a bottom up market, like housing, where entry lwvwl homes set prices, the changesnin basel 3, the fraudulent reliance on fake appraisals, mortgage brokers, and so on is now coming to a head.
When basel 3 is enforced next year the market for cobdos in the gta will collapse. Wven worse, the govy has insured a whole lot of bad mortgages that they dont have any reserves for. So while the govt is payomg off bankers, the people will get nothing.
In the end we are all stuck with this fraud, and the current pm is either far too dumb to do his old job, or a liar.
you are right . you should be the governor of the BOC . but they promote morons like Macklem . overlooked twice or more as incompetent, why are we protecting foreign investors who will walk away at closing and only lose a deposit on a 250 square foot condo that nobody wants.
At least BD doesn’t just spew out what CREA headlines say. How come when they talk about EV sales for instance, they don’t go to a sales person at a car dealership for market insight? That’s all MSM seems to be capable of…