Canadian home sales fell 1.3% in February, CREA says

By Promit Mukherjee

OTTAWA, March 17 (Reuters) - Canadian home sales fell 1.3% in February from January and prices declined in continuation of a trend that started early this year, data from the Canadian Real Estate Association showed on Wednesday, although it added there were some signs of a pick-up in activity around the end of the month.

New listings dropped on a monthly basis in February but were not enough to boost the sales-to-new listings ratio which stayed well below the long-term average, data showed.

KEY DETAILS

• Home sales edged down 1.3% month-over-month in February, after falling by 5.8% in January

• Sales were down 8.1% on an annual basis, without seasonal adjustment

• The industry group's Home Price Index fell 0.6% on the month and was down 4.8% year-over-year

• Newly listed properties declined by 3.9% month-over-month, while the sales-to-new listings ratio slightly narrowed to 47.6% from 46.4% in January

• “2026 is still ultimately expected to be a story about pent-up first-time buyer demand finally seeing a chance to enter the market. They’ve had to wait a long time for mortgage rates to find a bottom, but some will no doubt continue to hold off for a bottom in prices in some Ontario and British Columbia markets,” CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said.