Tariffs taking toll on Canadian home sales

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says turmoil around on-again off-again tariffs kept Canadian home buyers on the sidelines in March. 

According to CREA, national sales fell 4.8% in March from February, at a time when home sales usually increase. March was the fourth consecutive month of sales declines, which now sit 20% below sales recorded last November and, on a year-over-year basis, are down 9.3% from March 2024, making it the lowest March level since 2009. 

“Up until this point, declining home sales have mostly been about tariff uncertainty,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist. “Going forward, the Canadian housing space will also have to contend with the actual economic fallout. In short order, we’ve gone from a slam dunk rebound year to treading water at best.”  

“While the largest of these declines has been seen in Ontario and British Columbia, sales are down over the last few months in all but a handful of small markets across the country.” 

On the upside of the CREA report, for buyers, there were 5.1 months of inventory nationally at the end of last month, the highest level since the early months of the pandemic.  

“The long-term average for this measure 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 Cathcart. 

The number of homes listed for sale in March was up 3% from February which, when combined with the decrease in sales, saw the national sales-to-new listings ratio fall to 45.9% compared to 49.7% in February.  

“The March level for this measure of market balance is the lowest since February 2009,” said Cathcart. “The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9%, with readings between 45% and 65% generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions.” 

There were 165,800 properties listed for sale in Canada at the end of March 2025, up 18.3% from a year earlier but still below the long-term average (around 174,000 listings) for this time of the year. 

“While the trend of falling monthly sales has been observed across Canada over the last few months, there are still many regions where sales are high, inventory is near record lows, and prices are rising,” said Valérie Paquin, chair of CREA’s 2025-2026 Board of Directors. “There are also parts of the country with historically low sales and the highest inventory levels in a decade or more.” 

The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $678,331 in March 2025, down 1% from February and down 3.7% from March 2024. 

“The renewed softening in prices was most notable in British Columbia and Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe,” said Cathcart. “Across much of the Prairies, Quebec, and the East Coast, prices have continued to push higher.”