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Canada’s Housing Recovery Edges Forward as August Sales Hit Four-Year High and Building Slows

Rising listings plus weakening construction signal a cautious recalibration rather than a full rebound.

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A sold sign sits in front of a house in Toronto on Tuesday July 12, 2022. Real estate observers say a new mortgage code of conduct promised in the federal budget will be handy for Canadians having financial difficulties, but they still feel the economic plan was lacking affordability measures.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
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A sold-over-asking sign is shown in front of a home in Toronto on May 18, 2025. The Canadian Real Estate Association says it recorded the most home sales for August in four years as the number of residential properties that changed hands rose 1.9 per cent compared with a year ago.

Overview

  • National home sales rose 1.1% from July in August, marking a fifth straight monthly gain and the strongest August since 2021, with roughly 40,000 to 40,700 transactions and a 12.5% cumulative increase since March.
  • Montreal, Greater Vancouver and Ottawa posted gains that offset a dip in the Greater Toronto Area, underscoring uneven regional momentum.
  • New listings increased 2.6% month over month and active listings climbed 8.8% from a year earlier, easing the sales-to-new-listings ratio to 51.2% with 4.4 months of inventory nationally.
  • CREA’s Home Price Index slipped 0.1% on the month and 3.4% year over year, while the unadjusted national average sale price rose 1.8% to $664,078.
  • CMHC reported a 16% drop in the August seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts to 245,791, with steep year-to-date declines in Ontario (about −23%) and Toronto (about −46%) as economists polled by Reuters anticipate a Bank of Canada rate cut on Sept. 17 that could lift demand.