Canadian home sales tick 6.6% higher in July
July 2025 CREA recap
Home buyers are steadily returning to Canada's real estate market, as the global trade situation has tentatively stabilized, and affordability conditions remain attractive.
According to the July data released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), a total of 45,973 homes were sold over the course of the month, marking a 6.6% year-over-year increase, and up 3.8% since June. Overall, transactions have increased a total of 11.2% since March.
CREA says the majority of increased sales were in the Greater Toronto Area; while transactions there are still low from a historical perspective, they’re also up a cumulative 35.5% from March.
The pickup in activity has been long awaited, after tariff and market instability chilled the housing market in the first half of the year; the typically hot spring selling conditions never materialized as buyers, concerned about economic and job stability, put off their buying decisions.
However, now that the economy and businesses have had some time to absorb Trump’s tariff agenda – and the jobs market has stayed stable – buyers are coming back off the sidelines.
“With sales posting a fourth consecutive increase in July, and almost 4% at that, the long-anticipated post-inflation crisis pickup in housing seems to have finally arrived,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “Looking ahead a little bit, it will be interesting to see how buyers react to the burst of new supply that typically shows up in the first half of September.”
Home prices have yet to pick up
Those who have been active in the market have enjoyed decent affordability conditions; home prices have yet to follow sales higher, with the national average coming in at $672,784, up just 0.6% from last year, and 1.3% higher than in June. CREA reports that the MLS Home Price Index – a measure that strips out the high and low extremes of sale prices – stayed unchanged month over month, and is still down 3.4% compared to last year; a smaller annual decrease than what was recorded in June. Overall, the association points out, the measure has been largely stable since May.
“Based on the extent to which prices fell off in the second half of 2024, look for year-over-year declines to continue to shrink in the months ahead,” reads the association’s release.
Buyers still enjoy plenty of choice
Increased sales have started to eat into the number of available inventory, as the number of new listings brought to market – a total of 88,616 in July – was largely unchanged from June, up just 0.1%. That’s heated buyer competition somewhat, pushing the national sales-to-new-listings ratio (SNLR) to 52% from 50.1% in June, and 47.7% in May; while still in balanced market territory, this indicates that buyers are steadily experiencing more competition while on their home search. CREA defines a ratio between 45 - 65% to indicate balanced conditions, with below and above that threshold reflecting buyers’ and sellers’ markets, respectively.
Overall, there were 202,500 homes listed for sale at the end of July, up 10.1% from last year. That works out to 4.4 months of inventory (the amount of time it would take to fully sell off all available homes for sale amid current market conditions), and sits under the long-term average of five months.
Not sure where to start? Let us help you get started
The housing market could heat up fast this fall
The takeaway for buyers: Conditions are still well-balanced with stable price growth and plenty of choice, but things could heat up quickly.
“Activity continues to pick up through the transition from the spring to the summer market, which is the opposite of a normal year, but this has not been a normal year,” said Valérie Paquin, CREA Chair. “Typically, we see a burst of new listings right at the beginning of September to kick off the fall market, but it seems like buyers are increasingly returning to the market.”
Also read:
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.