It was another slow month for Canadian home sales in February as tariffs fears continued to keep buyers on the sidelines, according to the February market report from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
After a slow January, sales fell “sharply” last month by 9.8%, representing the most dramatic month-over-month decline since May 2022 and landing sales activity at November 2023 levels. Sales also fell on an annual basis, posting a decrease of 10.4% compared to February 2024.
Not surprisingly, CREA is attributing the slow market to the ongoing trade war.
“The moment tariffs were first announced on January 20, a gap opened between home sales recorded this year and last. This trend continued to widen throughout February, leading to a significant, but hardly surprising, drop in monthly activity,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist in a press release. “This is already being reflected in renewed price softness, particularly in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe region.”
The decline in sales was also seen in a majority of regions across the country, with three-quarters of local markets and almost all large markets seeing transactions down, according to CREA. The slowest sales, however, were concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding Great Golden Horseshoe regions, where some of the priciest markets in the country are located.
On the inventory front, listings fell alongside sales, with new listings declining by 12.7% month over month after a surprise 11% surge in listings this January. In total, there were 146,250 properties listed for sale across Canada in February, up 13.1% from last year but below the long time average for this time of year of 174,000 listings.
With sales and listing both slumping last month, the national sales-to-new listings ratio edged up slightly to 49.9% compared to 48.3% in January. After a sharp decline in sales, months of inventory rose from 4.1 to 4.7 between January and February, just below the long-term average of five months.
Another dramatic change was on the price front, with February posting a 0.8% monthly decline of the National Composite MLS Home Price Index (HPI) — the most significant month-over-month drop since December 2023. Again, the decline was driven by price softening in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe region.