Canada’s hot housing market ‘settling down’ amid rate hikes, new listings – National
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the housing market began to cool in June as the Bank of Canada resumed rate hikes and the number of new listings increased.
Home sales rose 1.5% in June from May, a smaller month-on-month increase than in April, CREA said on Friday.
Increases in Alberta and British Columbia were offset by declines in the Toronto metropolitan area, according to the association.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the national average home sales price last month was $709,218, up 6.7% from June 2022.
Contributing to the housing market’s cooling was the surge in new properties coming onto the market, according to CREA.
According to the association, the number of new home listings in June increased by 5.9% from the previous month, and compared to the lowest number of new home listings in 20 years at the beginning of this spring, the number is approaching the historical average and is recovering. It says.
“The housing market appears to be calming, with sales flattening near historical averages and new properties finally starting to catch up,” CREA senior economist Sean Cakert said in a statement.
Cathcart added that two rate hikes by the Bank of Canada in June and July are expected to continue to cool the housing market into the summer. CREA expects house prices to continue to rise, but at a slower pace than during the busy spring season.
Broker Royal Lepage also said in a revised forecast released on Thursday that it expects moderate price gains through the end of the year.
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