While there were early signs of renewed momentum in June following the Bank of Canada’s first interest rate cut since 2020, activity in Canada’s housing market took a pause in July.

Home sales activity recorded over Canadian MLS® Systems edged back by 0.7% on a month-over-month basis in July 2024, giving back a small portion of June’s post-first rate cut gain.

“With another rate cut announced on July 24, we’ve now seen two rate cuts in a row, and the expected pace of future policy easing has steepened considerably, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at every remaining Bank of Canada decision this year,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “Combine that with a record amount of demand waiting in the wings, and the forecast for a rekindling of Canadian housing activity going into 2025 has just gone from a layup to a slam dunk.”

Highlights:

• National home sales edged back 0.7% month-over-month in July.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 4.8% above July 2023.
• The number of newly listed properties ticked up 0.9% month-over-month.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) edged up 0.2% month-over-month but was down 3.9% year-over-year.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was almost unchanged (-0.2%) on a year-over-year basis in July.

https://stats.crea.ca/en-CA/