Canadian home sales drop 40 per cent in February compared with year ago

February’s home sales plummeted 40 per cent from a year ago to levels not seen since before the pandemic as new listings and prices also dropped in what one economist called “hints of a bottoming process.”

The plunge in sales came as actual average home prices declined 18.9 per cent compared with the all-time record posted in February 2022, the Canadian Real Estate Association said in a press release.

The actual average home price in Canada was $662,437 in February, down from $816,578 a year earlier, the association said.

Compared with January, national home sales rose 2.3 per cent in February from January, powered by gains in Toronto and Vancouver, while the number of newly listed properties dropped 7.9 per cent month over month.

Canada’s housing market has been sluggish for many months as the Bank of Canada hiked the interest rate eight times in roughly a year, pushing up mortgage rates and scaring off potential buyers. Sellers have also been deterred from the market because they won’t fetch as much now as their neighbours did for homes sold when prices were soaring to new highs during the pandemic.

“Because we don’t have much supply, people are frantically going for whatever comes on the market,” Tirajeh Mazaheri, a Coldwell Banker Prestige Realty agent in Vancouver said.

CREA chair Jill Oudil also foresees a more robust market on its way.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 15, 2023.