Housing Posts Mixed Results in June

National sales rose 1.5 per cent on the month and were up 5.4 per cent from last June, hitting their highest seasonally adjusted level since May 2022.

Listings are beginning to recover. These rose 5.9 per cent in June, the third straight monthly advance, but were still 14.4 per cent below last year’s level. Homeowners see the market improving and may be seeking to sell now in case rates rise further or the economy sours.

New listings rose slightly faster than sales, trimming the national sales-to-new-listings ratio to 63.6 per cent in June, a three-month low. Canada’s aggregate resale market is in a balanced state. Still, of 25 markets covered by this report, 17 had a sales-to-new-listings ratio of at least 60 per cent in June. Such figures often indicate a sellers’ market.

The slight easing of the sales-to-listings ratio trimmed Canada’s average price by 0.7 per cent, the first drop after four advances but still up 6.5 per cent from a year earlier. The decline was prompted by slowing monthly price growth in 13 of our 25 markets in June. Price advances cooled in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal, but accelerated in Calgary. Values are above year-earlier levels in 13 of our 25 markets.   

National housing starts surged in June, hitting a seasonally adjusted 10-month high of 281,373 units and interrupting a five-month decline. Big jumps in monthly activity in Toronto and Vancouver led the increase, although starts were up month-over-month in 17 of our 25 cites. Montréal starts edged higher, while Calgary’s pulled back.

Starts for single-detached units and apartments were up in June, while activity in the combined semi-detached and row dwelling category was stable. Canada’s housing market faces the competing influences of population-fuelled housing requirements and affordability challenges posed by high interest rates. In the short term, high interest rates look set to cool demand.