May home sales down 5.1 per cent from year earlier, but CREA says momentum building

Jason Mercer, chief information officer at Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss Toronto home sales numbers for the month of May.

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in May were down compared with a year ago, but there was “meaningful upward momentum” month-over-month for the first time this year.

The organization says home sales in May totalled 47,014, down 5.1 per cent from May 2025.

However, activity was up 5.5 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with April this year.

Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist, says conditions have been improving under the surface for some time, as expectations of both sellers and buyers are increasingly aligned which is helping prices stabilize.

The national average sale price of a home sold in May was $702,079, up 1.5 per cent on a year-over-year basis, and the highest it’s been in two years.

CREA says new listings for May were down one per cent on a month-over-month basis.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press