Canadian Home Sales Down 5.1% From Last Year but Activity Picks Up in May

Canadian home sales rose 5.5 per cent in May as spring market picked up

Canadian home sales increased in May after a slower start to the spring market, according to figures released Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

CREA said sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems rose 5.5 per cent from April to May on a seasonally adjusted basis. Actual monthly activity, which does not adjust for seasonal patterns, remained 5.1 per cent below May 2025.

The national increase marked the first month of 2026 with meaningful upward momentum in headline demand, CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said in the association's release. Cathcart said Ontario accounted for a disproportionate share of the increase.

Cathcart said buyers and sellers were becoming more aligned, with tighter sale-to-list price ratios and shorter periods between listing and sale. CREA said prices have "largely stabilized" after softness earlier in the year.

Listings edged lower as sales increased

New listings fell one per cent from April to May, CREA said. With sales rising and new listings slipping, the national sales-to-new-listings ratio tightened to 49.2 per cent from 46.2 per cent in April.

CREA's long-term average for the sales-to-new-listings ratio is 54.8 per cent. The association says readings between roughly 45 and 65 per cent usually indicate balanced market conditions.

At the end of May, just over 200,000 properties were listed for sale on Canadian MLS Systems on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. CREA said that total was unchanged from a year earlier and 2.8 per cent below the long-term average for that time of year.

Inventory moved closer to its long-term average

National inventory fell to 4.8 months at the end of May. The measure had been 5.1 months in February, March and April.

CREA said the May inventory reading sat close to its long-term average of five months. Based on CREA's one-standard-deviation range around that average, the association places a seller's market below 3.6 months and a buyer's market above 6.4 months.

The lower inventory reading followed the increase in completed transactions and the decline in newly listed properties. CREA chair Garry Bhaura said the handoff from May into June usually marks the busiest period of the year.

Bhaura said May's numbers showed that "activity is now picking up" during a normally active part of the calendar.

Average sale price crossed $700,000

The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $702,079 in May. CREA said that was up 1.5 per cent from May 2025 and represented the highest monthly national average sale price in two years.

CREA said it was also the first time in 23 months that the national average sale price moved above $700,000.

The National Composite MLS Home Price Index, which tracks typical price movement, edged down 0.1 per cent from April. CREA said the May decline, aside from April's result, was the smallest monthly decline since January 2025.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the national composite HPI was down 4.1 per cent from May 2025. CREA said that was the smallest year-over-year decline recorded so far in 2026.

Regional price trends remained uneven

CREA said prices remained lower than a year earlier in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Gains in other provinces offset part of that weakness in the national figures.

The national release did not provide a single local-market narrative. CREA's figures combine major market and national sales information from MLS Systems, and the association cautions that average prices can show broad trends without reflecting conditions in individual cities or neighbourhoods.

The release arrived less than a week after the Bank of Canada held its policy rate unchanged. Mortgage-rate expectations remain part of the broader housing backdrop, with buyers weighing prices, qualification rules and borrowing costs.

For broader rate context, see Mortgage Rates in Canada in June 2026. CREA said its next national statistics package will be published July 15, 2026.