April home sales down amid frosty start to spring real estate market

The canadian river existent acres connection says place sales in April fell compared with a year ago as the average sale price climbed.

The organization said home sales in April totalled 42,927, down four per cent from 44,698 in April 2025.

Home sales in April edged up 0.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with March this year.

Shaun Cathcart, CREA's senior economist, said the latest bout of global economic uncertainty and higher mortgage rates mean the previously expected rebound in housing markets this year will continue to be muted, but it does not mean there will be no upward momentum at all.

"While home sales were up only modestly from March to April, the small increase reflected a slow start to the month with a stronger handoff into May, alongside falling days on market and stabilizing prices," Cathcart said in a news release.

Despite the bump in activity, sales remain about 10 per cent below normal April levels, BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note.

"No one is going to mistake this for a sign of spring for the chilly housing market."

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The non-seasonally adjusted national average sale price of a home sold in April was $695,412, up 2.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

But CREA's home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, edged 0.1 per cent lower between March and April. The index was down 4.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

CREA said new listings for April were up 4.1 per cent on a month-over-month basis, marking the traditional start of the spring real estate market.

There were a total of 187,647 properties listed for sale across Canada at the end of April, up 2.2 per cent from a year earlier but 6.1 per cent below the long-term average for that time of the year.

Last month, the association revised its forecast for home sales activity in 2026 — while it initially predicted 5.1 per cent more transactions than in 2025, the association now predicts only one per cent growth due to the oil price shock having knock-on effects on mortgage rates.

The national average home price is forecast to rise 1.5 per cent on an annual basis to $688,955 in 2026, which would be around $10,000 lower than predicted in January.

The gap between the listing price of a home and what it eventually sells for narrowed in April, however, which Cathcart said could make the market start to move again.

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Porter said the latest trends suggest expectations for a marked recovery in Canadian housing activity have been dialed back again, as sales have been "dampened by consumer caution amid the upswing in [oil-driven] inflation."

"Given lingering affordability issues in many regions of the country, and the now-distant prospect of any further rate cuts by the Bank of Canada, it's tough to see the market springing to life anytime soon," he said.

Regionally, prices were down on a year-over-year basis in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, which offset gains in other provinces. In Toronto, the average home price in April was down 6.3 per cent compared to last year and down 13 per cent compared to 2023 prices.

"The main takeaway is that while there are still substantial regional differences, much of the country is dealing with generally chilly activity," Porter said.

Reporter

Sammy Hudes is a business reporter with The Canadian Press

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