Canada Existing Home Sales Continue to Pick Up, Edging Ahead 0.5% in July

By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Canada's housing market continues to show signs of recovery, with sales nudging up again last month even as new listings continue to retreat and prices notched the first, slim increase in more than a year and a half.

Sales of existing homes nationally rose a modest 0.5% from the month before in July, matching the pace of June, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Tuesday. Sales have now risen four consecutive months.

Still, sales on a unadjusted basis were 5.3% below year-earlier levels.

"July's housing data was a carbon copy of the June numbers, with home sales edging up a little further, listings down, and prices remaining stable," Shaun Cathcart, the association's senior economist, said.

Cathcart said housing markets across the country are generally moving back toward balance between supply and demand. In the Prairie provinces, in Quebec, and on Canada's east coast sellers' markets have been steadily cooling off over the past year, and more recently markets are more balanced in British Columbia's lower mainland and the densely-populated urban region of southern Ontario, he said.

The number of newly listed properties declined 1.6% between June and July, a third monthly drop in a row. The national sales-to-new listings ratio tightened marginally to 51.3%, a second time above 50% this year and moving toward the long-term average ratio of 54.7%.

The association said there were 205,388 properties listed for sale across real estate systems at the end of July, up 0.6% from a year earlier and 1.5% above the long-term average for the time of year. There were 4.7 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of last month, the lowest level so far in 2026 and slightly below the long-term average for the measure of five months.

The data indicated benchmark house prices, calculated in a similar fashion to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, edged up 0.1% during July, the first increase in the national measure since November 2024 following no change in June. Compared with a year earlier, prices were down 3.3% following a drop of 3.6% a month earlier.

The Bank of Canada has left its policy interest rate unchanged six times in a row, and is widely expected to stay on hold at its next meeting in early August, as the economy shows signs of recovery, core inflation remains largely contained despite a spike in gasoline prices, but trade uncertainty remains heightened.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has forecast 463,336 residential properties will trade hands this year, a 1.4% dip from 2025 thanks to a sharp reduction in population growth and historic supply shortages, particularly in Quebec and the east coast. It projects the average home price will rise by 1.1% on an annual basis.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the national housing agency, last month projected home sales will recover gradually through 2028 but remain below levels seen over the last decade, while housing starts are forecast to continue falling as builders respond to weakened demand, elevated inventories and high construction costs.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2026 05:14 ET (09:14 GMT)