Home sales declined by 5.3 per cent in July, back to pre-COVID levels – CBC

Smallest decline in home sales since slowdown began five months ago

Aug 15, 2022

Canada’s housing market continued to cool in July, with the average home price clocking in at $629,971 — a figure that drops by another $104,000 when excluding the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver markets — as compared to June’s average price of $665,850.

The volume of home sales also went down, dropping by 5.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis. This marked the smallest decline in sales since housing activity started slowing five months ago, according to a monthly housing statistics report released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Monday.

The report shows housing activity returning to pre-pandemic levels, and the housing market continuing to stabilize after two pandemic years that set Canadian housing activity ablaze with record-setting sales prices and selling volumes.

That fire was then extinguished when the Bank of Canada hiked interest rates in early 2022, upping mortgage prices and giving buyers less bang for their buck.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/real-estate-numbers-july-crea-1.6551351