The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has updated its forecast for home sales activity via the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) Systems of Canadian real estate boards and associations in 2022 and 2023.
With interest rates on the rise, home sales have continued to cool. In some parts of the country, home prices have fallen from their peaks reached earlier this year, are flat in some regions, and are still climbing in others. The issue of not enough homes for sale has not gone away.
Some 532,545 properties are forecast to trade hands via Canadian MLS® Systems in 2022, a decline of 20% from the 2021 annual record. The downward revision from CREA’s June forecast was mostly the result of a downward revision to sales activity in Ontario, along with smaller revisions in B.C., Alberta and Quebec.
The national average home price is forecast to rise by 4.7% on an annual basis to $720,255 in 2022. That said, much of that increase reflects how high prices were to start the year. Annual price gains are forecast to be largest in Quebec and the Maritimes.
National home sales are forecast to edge back a further 2.3% to 520,156 units in 2023. The national average home price is forecast to slide mostly sideways (+0.2%) from 2022 to 2023 at around 722,000.