Canadian Home Sales Fall Further in February

March 21, 2018

BC – Statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show national home sales declined further in February 2018.

Highlights:

  • National home sales declined by 6.5% from January to February.
  • Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 16.9% year-over-year (y-o-y) in February.
  • The number of newly listed homes recovered by 8.1% from January to February.
  • The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) in February was up 6.9% y-o-y.
  • The national average sale price declined by 5% y-o-y in February.

Home sales via Canadian MLS® Systems were down 6.5% in February. This marks the second consecutive monthly decline following the record set in December 2017 and the lowest reading in nearly five years.

February sales were down from the previous month in almost three-quarters of all local housing markets, with large monthly declines in and around Greater Vancouver (GVA) and Greater Toronto (GTA).

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was down 16.9% year-over-year (y-o-y) and hit a five-year low for the month of February. Sales also stood 7% below the 10-year average for the month of February. Sales activity came in below year-ago levels in 80% of all local markets in February.

The number of newly listed homes recovered by 8.1% in February following a plunge of more than 20% in January. Despite the monthly increase in February, new listings nationally were still lower than monthly levels recorded in every month last year except January, and came in 6.4% below the 10-year monthly average and 14.6% below the peak reached in December 2017.

New supply was up in about three-quarters of local markets. The monthly increase was led by B.C.’s Lower Mainland, the GTA, Ottawa and Montreal.

With sales down and new listings up in February, the national sales-to-new listings ratio eased to 55% compared to 63.7% in January. This returned the ratio close to where it was during the second half of last year.

There were 5.3 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of February 2018 – the highest level in two-and-a-half years and in line with the long-term average of 5.2 months.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose by 6.9% y-o-y in February 2018. This was the 10th consecutive deceleration in y-o-y gains, continuing a trend that began last spring. It was also the smallest y-o-y increase since October 2015.

Apartment units again posted the largest y-o-y price gains in February (+20.1%), followed by townhouse/row units (+11.8%), one-storey single family homes (+3.5%), and two-storey single family homes (+1%).

Benchmark home prices in February were up from year-ago levels in 10 of the 13 markets tracked by the MLS® HPI.

Composite benchmark home prices in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia continue to trend higher after having dipped briefly during the second half of 2016 (GVA: +16.9% y-o-y; Fraser Valley: +24.1% y-o-y). Apartment units have been largely driving this regional trend in recent months.

Benchmark home prices continued to rise by about 14% on a y-o-y basis in Victoria and by about 20% elsewhere on Vancouver Island.

The national average price is heavily skewed by sales in the GVA and GTA, two of Canada’s most active and expensive markets. Excluding these two markets from calculations trims more than $112,000 from the national average price, reducing it to just under $382,000.

Share This