National home sales rise as long-awaited boost ‘seems to have finally arrived’: CREA

A real estate sign is shown in Vaughan, Ont., on Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paige Taylor White

The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in July rose 6.6 per cent compared with a year ago, continuing an upward trend after the market had slowed in previous months.

A total of 45,973 homes changed hands last month, up from 43,122 in July 2024.

Home sales rose 3.8 per cent on a month-over-month basis from June, with transactions up a cumulative 11.2 per cent since March.

“With sales posting a fourth consecutive increase in July, and almost four per cent at that, the long-anticipated post-inflation crisis pickup in housing seems to have finally arrived,” said CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart in a press release.

“Looking ahead a little bit, it will be interesting to see how buyers react to the burst of new supply that typically shows up in the first half of September.”

The association said the bump in sales activity was led overwhelmingly by the Greater Toronto Area, where transactions have now rebounded a cumulative 35.5 per cent since March.

It’s been a similar story around 200 kilometres southwest of there in London, Ont., said Adam Miller, broker and manager of Royal LePage Triland Realty.

Home sales activity in the London and St. Thomas region was up 27.4 per cent in July compared with a year earlier, according to the CREA data.

Miller said anticipation has been building for months among potential buyers as consumer confidence has started to rebound.

“I think a lot of buyers just said, ‘OK, the rate changes haven’t happened, it seems like the market is pretty stable, prices are probably close to as low as they’ve been for the last little while,”’ he said.

“So I think a lot of the buyers decided to show up and have a little summer surprise.”

TD economist Rishi Sondhi said “pent-up demand temporarily sidelined earlier in the year returned to markets with some force last month.”

“Indeed, it looks as though the sales recovery that should have happened earlier in the year after significant (interest) rate relief in 2024 was simply delayed some months,” he said in a note.

“Some reduction in economic uncertainty should bring back more buyers in B.C. and Ontario, while further Bank of Canada rate relief could offer modest stimulus in the back half of the year. However, barriers remain, such as stretched affordability in several provinces and a weaker job market.”

Home sales in many markets had plummeted in the wake of the Canada-U.S. trade dispute that kicked off earlier this year. Real estate analysts pointed to the significant economic uncertainty associated with both U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, as well as the effect of Canada’s counter-tariffs.

Miller said sentiment in the real estate market has shifted, with many buyers feeling the situation hasn’t been as bad as initially predicted. However, he cautioned that “things can change on a dime.”

“There was sort of that ‘sky was falling’ aspect,” he said.

“People are kind of like, ‘Oh, everything seems to be OK still, maybe we’ll start moving forward with our plans to get a new home, into a first-time home, things like that.”’

Meanwhile, new listings across Canada were up 0.1 per cent month-over-month.

There were 202,500 properties listed for sale across Canada at the end of July, up 10.1 per cent from a year earlier and in line with the long-term average for that time of the year.

The actual national average sale price of a home sold in July was $672,784, up 0.6 per cent from a year ago.

CREA’s own home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, was unchanged between June and July 2025.

BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic said the housing market has looked “very balanced and stable” through the summer, with significant regional variation persisting.

“At the national level, sales have steadily climbed back toward longer-term norms, inventory is elevated but not overly saturating the market, and prices are effectively flat,” he said in a note.

“In markets where price corrections are ongoing, we seem to be getting closer to levels that are bringing some buyers off the sidelines.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press