National Home Sales Edge Up

National home sales increased 2.3 per cent month over month in February, with actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity at 40 per cent below February 2022, says the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). “The similarities between 2023 and the recovery year of 2019 continued to emerge in February, with sales up, the market tightening, and month-over-month price declines getting smaller. But the biggest similarity was a sharp drop in seasonally adjusted new listings,” says Shaun Cathcart, CREA's senior economist. The number of newly listed homes dropped 7.9 per cent, led by a decline in several large markets, particularly in Ontario. With new listings falling and sales rising in February, the sales-to-new listings ratio jumped to 58.4 per cent, the tightest since last April. The long-term average for this measure is 55.1 per cent. There were 4.1 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of February 2023, down from 4.2 months at the end of January. It was the first time the measure has shown any sign of tightening since the fall of 2021. It is also a full month below its long-term average.