Home sales picked up across the country in April. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported a double digit jump of 11.3 per cent since March. While that number remains 19.5 per cent below April 2022, the current data shows buyers are stepping back into the housing market.
The B.C. Lower Mainland and the Greater Toronto Area are where sales are dominating. “Over the last few months, there have been signs that housing markets were going to heat back up this year, so it wasn’t a surprise to see things take off after the Easter weekend, which often serves as the opener to the spring market,” said Larry Cerqua, CREA’s 2023-2024 Chair.
Demand is outpacing supply. The number of newly listed homes rose to 1.6 per cent on a month-over-month basis in April, but new supply remains at a 20-year low. Sales gains widely outpaced new listings in April, with the sales-to-new listings ratio jumping to 70.2 per cent, up from 64.1 per cent in March.
“With interest rates at a top, and home prices at a bottom, it wasn’t all that surprising to see buyers jumping off the sidelines and back into the market in April,” said Shaun Cathcart, senior economist for CREA. “Supply, on the other hand, has been sluggish, hence the price gains from March to April seen all over the country.
“Looking ahead, the first week of May did see a bit of a burst of new supply, suggesting some of those April buyers were existing owners now looking to sell their current homes. That could make for the kind of virtuous circle that might ultimately get more first-time buyers into the ownership space this year.”
CREA says the average home, as of April, is now $716,000, down 3.9 per cent from last April yet up $103,500 from January 2023 because of “outsized sales rebounds in the GTA and B.C. Lower Mainland.” Removing the GTA and Greater Vancouver from the calculation cuts more than $144,000 from the national average price.
CREA also recorded a 1.6 per cent increase for the home price index in April from March, and that was seen across most local markets. The HPI is currently 12.3 per cent below levels one year ago, a smaller decline from earlier this year.
