New listings soar in Canada's housing market as tariff uncertainty weighs on sales
Uncertainty around tariffs and a potential trade war with the United States were the likely culprits behind home sales falling off during the last week of January, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). That weakness pushed national sales down 3.3 per cent compared to December, CREA said in its latest housing report.
At the same time, newly listed properties jumped 11 per cent month-over-month in January — uncommon for the typically slow winter season — reflecting “the largest seasonally adjusted monthly increase in new supply on record going back to the late 1980s,” the report said, aside from swings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The timing of that change in demand leaves little doubt as to the cause — uncertainty around tariffs,” CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said in a release. “Together with higher supply, this means markets that had been steadily tightening up since last fall are now suddenly in a softer pricing situation again, particularly in British Columbia and Ontario.”
The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price increased just 1.1 per cent year-over-year to $670,064 in January. CREA says the National Composite MLS Home Price Index has “barely budged” in the last year due to “ongoing softness” in Ontario and British Columbia — though that’s been offset by rising prices in Quebec, the Prairies and the East Coast.
B.C. and Ontario are still the most expensive provinces to buy a home, but average residential prices were down 3.8 per cent in B.C. and 6.2 per cent in Ontario month-over-month in January. Meanwhile, prices were up 7.3 per cent in Quebec. The Prairies had more modest price increases, at 0.4 per cent in Alberta, 0.7 per cent in Saskatchewan and 0.3 per cent in
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