Canadian home sales fall to lowest in more than year as trade war escalates
Largest monthly drop since May 2022, says CREA
Economic uncertainty around tariffs is spilling over into Canada’s real estate market, as home sales and new listings dropped sharply in the first full month of the ongoing trade war with the United States.
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In its latest housing data, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said homebuyers stayed on the sidelines in February, with sales activity falling nearly 10 per cent month-over-month, marking the lowest level for home sales since November 2023 and the largest month-over-month decline in activity since May 2022, according to CREA.
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Declines were broad-based but the trend was most pronounced in the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding Golden Horseshoe regions. Overall, sales fell in about three-quarters of all local markets and in almost all large markets.
“The moment tariffs were first announced on January 20, a gap opened between home sales recorded this year and last,” said CREA’s senior economist, Shaun Cathcart. He said this trend continued to widen throughout February, leading to a significant, but hardly surprising, drop in monthly activity.
New listings also plunged 12.7 per cent month-over-month in February, undoing the surprise surge recorded in the previous month. This brought the national sales-to-new listings ratio up sightly to 49.9 per cent compared to 48.3 per cent in January.
At the end of February, 146,250 properties were listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems. This is up 13.1 per cent from 2024 but still below the long-term average for that time of the year of around 174,000 listings.
“The uncertainty of the last few weeks seems to be causing some buyers to think twice about big financial decisions right now,” said CREA chair James Mabey.
• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com
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