Canadian home sales hit highest August since 2021
August 2025 CREA recap
The Canadian housing market continued to shrug off its sluggish spring in August, with sales heating to a four-year high for the month.
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), a total of 40,257 properties were sold, marking the fifth month in a row that transactions have improved, up 1.1% from July. Compared to last year, sales are up 1.9%, and overall activity has recovered 12.5% since March, the depths of the early-spring slump.
The bulk of sales was concentrated in Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa. Toronto, meanwhile, saw sales dip slightly during the month, after “overwhelmingly” leading gains throughout late spring.
Given spring market conditions were so unseasonably chilly, market watchers are looking to the typically brisk fall market to recover that lost activity.
“August continued the trend of rising sales in many markets across the country, and while momentum slowed compared to July, much of that is simply a reflection of the time of year,” said Valérie Paquin, CREA Chair. “Now that we are on the other side of Labour Day, new listings are flooding onto the market.”
Prices have been slow to catch up
While sales are seeing a modest uptick, home prices have yet to heat back up; the national average came in at $664,078 in August, up 1.8% compared to last year, and flat (0.4%) from July.
The MLS Home Price Index, which measures the price of the most typical type of home transaction with the upper and lower extremes removed, has actually declined, down 3.4% on a year over year basis, and virtually unchanged month over month at -0.1%.
However, CREA expects that price growth will start to pick back up in the coming months.
“Following declines in the first quarter of the year, the national benchmark price has been mostly stable since April,” states the association’s August release.
“The non-seasonally adjusted National Composite MLS® HPI was down 3.4% compared to August 2024. Based on the extent to which prices fell off beginning in the fall of 2024, look for year-over-year declines to continue to shrink in the months ahead.”
The market remains well-balanced for buyers
Sellers also increasingly came out of the woodwork in August, as a total of 75,959 new listings hit the market, up 2.6% from July, and 6.1% compared to the same time period last year.
Given the increase in new supply outpaced that of sales, that pulled the sales-to-new-listings ratio (SNLR) slightly lower, from 52% in July to 51.2%. This ratio measures the level of buyer competition in the marketplace; CREA considers a range between 45 - 65% to indicate a balanced market, with above and below that threshold reflecting sellers’ and buyers’ markets, respectively.
Overall, there were 195,453 properties listed for sale at the end of August 2025, up 8.8% from a year earlier – but right in line with the long-term average for that time of the year. The number of months of inventory – the amount of time it would take to fully sell off all available homes for sale amid current market conditions – came in at 4.4 months, which is its lowest level since January. However, that also supports generally balanced conditions, as CREA considers a sellers’ market to be below 3.6 months, and a buyers’ market above 6.4 months.
Will Canadian home sales continue to rise?
Given many would-be home buyers sidelined their purchases this spring, there’s plenty of pent-up demand ready to jump back into the market – they’re just waiting for the right conditions.
And so far, this fall is shaping up to be an attractive one for buyers, with plenty of choice available, and the promise of lower interest rates on the horizon.
“Activity has continued to gradually pick up steam over the last five months, but the experience from a year ago suggests that trend could accelerate this fall,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “Part of what drives sales at different points in the year is the availability of a lot of fresh property listings for buyers to buy. For the fall market, that always happens right at the beginning of September, and this year was no exception. If last year is any kind of guide, then there is the potential that sales could really pick up in the next month or so depending on how many buyers are drawn off the sidelines, particularly if we see a September rate cut by the Bank of Canada.”
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Penelope Graham, Head of Content
Penelope has over a decade of experience covering real estate, mortgage, and personal finance topics and her commentary on the housing market is featured on both national and local media outlets.