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Apr 17, 2023

Home Sales Achieve Back-to-back Gains

Home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems posted a 1.4 per cent increase from February to March 2023. The small rise built on an increase of the same size in February, marking the first back-to-back monthly gains in more than a year. A standout in March was a bounce in sales in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) transactions in March 2023 came in 34.4 per cent below a historically strong March 2022. The March 2023 sales figure was comparable to what was seen for that month in 2018 and 2019. It was also the smallest year-over-year decline since last September. "As the spring market heats up and it looks as though some buyers are coming off the sidelines, it's important to remember that the intense market conditions of recent years have not gone anywhere, they've just been on pause," says Jill Oudil, chair of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). "With buyers re-entering a market with historically low supply, homes are not only selling, but selling faster." The number of newly listed homes dropped a further 5.8 per cent on a month-over-month basis in March. New supply is currently at a 20-year low. With new listings falling considerably and sales moving higher once again in March, the sales-to-new listings ratio jumped up to 63.5 per cent, the tightest market in a year. The long-term average for this measure is 55.1 per cent. There were 3.9 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of March 2023, down from 4.1 months at the end of February and the lowest level since last October. It's also now more than a full month below its long-term average.

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