Canadian Home Sales Post Best August in Four Years: CREA

The number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems edged up 1.1% on a month-over-month basis in August 2025. It was the best month of August for sales since 2021, and the fifth straight monthly increase in activity, making for a cumulative 12.5% since March, reported the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Monday.

Unlike in recent months, when gains were led overwhelmingly by the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), sales in the GTA were down slightly in August, but this was more than offset by higher sales in Montreal, Greater Vancouver and Ottawa, it said.

“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.”

August Highlights:

New supply rose 2.6% month-over-month in August. With the increase in new listings outpacing the increase in sales in August, the sales-to-new listings ratio eased for the first time since March, falling to 51.2% compared to 52% in July. The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9%, with readings roughly between 45% and 65% generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, said CREA, adding there were 195,453 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems 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.

“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.”

There were 4.4 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of August 2025, the lowest level since January. The long-term average for this measure of market balance is five months of inventory. Based on one standard deviation above and below that long-term average, a seller’s market would be below 3.6 months and a buyer’s market would be above 6.4 months, said CREA

The National Composite MLS Home Price Index (HPI) was again almost unchanged (-0.1%) between July and August 2025. Following declines in the first quarter of the year, the national benchmark price has been mostly stable since April. 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 non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $664,078 in August 2025, up 1.8% from August 2024, added CREA.

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