Though year over year numbers were down, February 2023 is showing signs of echoing pre-pandemic figures from February 2018 and 2019. “The similarities between 2023 and the recovery year of 2019 continued to emerge in February, with sales up, the market tightening, and month-over-month price declines getting smaller,” confirmed Shaun Cathcart, Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) Senior Economist.
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New Listings Drop as Future Still Uncertain
According to data released today by CREA, the market is showing signs of tightening as the number of newly listed properties was down significantly by 7.9% from last month. Similarly, inventory fell to 4.1 months – a nearly 5% decrease from January. This is a full month below the long-term average, however, with the spring market nearing conditions could shift.
“While we’re not seeing it in the sales or data just yet, I would expect homeowners are getting properties ready for the market and prospective buyers are getting mortgage pre-approvals,” explained Jill Oudil, Chair of CREA. If the market is following February 2019’s pattern, then we can expect buyer demand to uptick in the coming months.
Majority of Markets See Sales and Price Gains
With a month-over-month increase of 2.3%, from 32,858 in January to 33,621 this month, home sales are climbing upwards across the country. Though most notably Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto saw the most significant sales increases at 15.2% and 8.5% respectively (seasonally adjusted). Other regions are also inching upwards, including Newfoundland & Labrador, Regina, Calgary, Saskatoon and Niagara Region. Year over year, sales dropped by 40%, however February 2022 was an unusually strong month and compared with 2018 and 2019 data these numbers are aligned.
Despite the national average home price declining 18.9% from February 2022, when we saw an all-time record high, it’s actually increased by more than $50,000 from last month, now reaching $662,437. Demand is steadily increasing in most regions, notably Quebec City which saw an average price increase of 3.5%, and Kitchener-Waterloo at 3%.
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