National existing home sales inched higher in October as an increase of 1.3 per cent interrupted a string of seven straight declines. Buyers continue to be wary against a backdrop of high interest rates and uncertain economic prospects. Despite October’s monthly advance, transactions hover 36 per cent below October 2021 and 18 per cent below the 10-year average of seasonally adjusted monthly sales.
National listings remain stable, rising 2.2 per cent in October after having dipped 1.2 per cent in September—they’re now only 1.9 per cent below last year’s volume. Potential sellers seem confident that the market will eventually stabilize and are thus waiting to list their homes. The slightly larger rise in listings than in sales left Canada’s average resale price down only 0.6 per cent in October, although this marked the seventh monthly drop in the past eight months.
Sales and listings patterns continue to be mixed. Transactions rose in 17 of our 30 markets in October, with seven areas reporting gains of at least 5 per cent. Still, volumes remain below a year earlier in 29 areas. Listings, meanwhile, enjoyed widespread increases in October, with volumes up in 20 areas, but they still trailed year-earlier volumes in 16 jurisdictions. Despite the modest sales increase, few markets tightened; the sales-to-listing ratio rose in only 13 areas. We identified 21 balanced markets in October, down from 22 areas in September. Three markets—Trois-Rivières, Saint John, and Newfoundland and Labrador—are in a sellers’ state, mainly due to weak listings. Buyers’ conditions prevail in six areas. Pricing continues to be soft as 18 areas suffered month-to-month declines in October, pulling values below year-earlier levels in 17 markets.
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