• Home sales dropped by 9.8% between January and February, the third monthly contraction in a row and the strongest decline since May 2022 when the Bank of Canada was tightening its monetary policy aggressively.
• On the supply side, new listings down 12.7% from January to February following a 14.8% jump the previous month.
• Active listings increased by 3.4% from January to February, the third monthly advance in a row. Combined with the decrease in sales, the number of months of inventory (active listings-to-sales) increased for the third consecutive month, jumping from 4.1 in January to 4.7 in February, its highest level since June 2019 (excluding Covid).
• Market conditions loosened sharply during the month and moved from tighter than their historical average to balanced. This was mainly due to a sharp softening in market conditions in Ontario and B.C., which are now in “favourable to buyers” territory. On the other hand, all other provinces are still showing tighter than average market conditions.
• Housing starts decreased by 4% (-10.3K) in February to 229.0K (seasonally adjusted and annualized), a print below the median economist forecast calling for 246K units. The monthly loss was driven by a decrease in urban starts (-10.3K to 209.8K) while rural starts were flat (at 19.2K). In urban centres, the regression was observed in the multi-unit segment (-9.8K to 166.5K), while starts edged down in the single-detached segment (-0.5K to 43.3K).
• The Teranet–National Bank Composite National House Price Index decreased by 0.1% from January to February after seasonal adjustment. Three of the 11 markets in the composite index were down during the month: Victoria (-1.4%), Vancouver (-0.9%) and Toronto (-0.5%). Conversely, prices rose in Halifax (+2.8%), Winnipeg (+0.9%), Montreal (+0.9%), Edmonton (+0.9%), Calgary (+0.8%), Quebec City (+0.6%), Ottawa-Gatineau (+0.3%) and Hamilton (+0.2%).

https://www.nbc.ca/content/dam/bnc/taux-analyses/analyse-eco/logement/economic-news-resale-market.pdf