Ottawa, ON: Statistics released on June 15 by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show national home sales were down in May 2022.
Home sales recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems declined by 8.6% between April and May 2022. This built on a larger drop recorded in April, leaving monthly activity at pre-COVID levels recorded in the second half of 2019 and only slightly above the 10-year average.
Sales were down in three-quarters of all local markets, led by a number of larger census metropolitan areas (CMAs) including those in the Lower Mainland, Calgary, Edmonton, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Ottawa.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) number of transactions in May 2022 came in 21.7% below the record for that month set last year. At a little over 50,000 units sold, the May 2022 sales figure was very close to the 10-year average for that month.
The number of newly listed homes climbed 4.5% on a month-over-month basis in May. The monthly increase was influenced by a jump in new supply in Montreal, while new listings in the GTA posted a small decline.
With sales down and new listings up in May, the sales-to-new listings ratio eased back to 57.5% — its lowest level since April 2019. It was also not far off the long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio of 55.1%.
Regionally, most of the monthly declines were seen in markets in Ontario. While a majority of Ontario markets saw prices dip from April to May, a number were up, including in the northern and southern parts of the province and the eastern areas of cottage country.
Vancouver Island saw prices increase. In Greater Vancouver, prices were flat month-over-month in May, while further east prices fell modestly in the Fraser Valley and posted a larger decline in Chilliwack. Prices were more or less flat across the Prairies save for small gains in Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
Meanwhile, Quebec, New Brunswick and PEI continued to outperform with notable gains, while prices in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador edged up slightly.
