You see a headline boasting how Canadian home sales rose once again last month, and you may think that’s the same story across the entire country.
Not necessarily. As always, all real estate markets are local, so just because the number of home sales recorded in July was up another 0.5% — following a 0.5% increase in June — doesn’t mean that’s the case in, say, Regina or Halifax.
But there is an interesting national narrative being built here with the latest data that was just released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
Before we get into what the latest Canadian housing data means, here’s the latest on what you need to know:
• National home sales edged up 0.5% month-over-month.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 5.3% below July 2025.
• The number of newly listed properties declined 1.6% on a month-over-month basis.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) — a tool that tracks home price levels and trends in local neighborhoods — edged up 0.1% month-over-month, the first increase since November 2024.
• The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was up 0.2% on a year-over-year basis, reaching $674,819.
Home sales increased in most provinces
It’s a similar story to June: national home sales increased, new listings decreased and prices remained stable.
“The more interesting story over the last few months has been below the surface of the headline national numbers, where markets across the country are generally moving back towards balance,” says CREA Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart.
He said places like the Prairies, Quebec and the East Coast have seen their sellers’ markets steadily cooling off over the past year, where British Columbia’s Lower Mainland and Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe have shifted from buyers’ markets back into balanced territory.
“Sellers’ markets aren’t going to stay sellers’ markets forever, and Ontario is not going to stay at a 30-year low for sales forever,” Cathcart explains in this month’s CREA Housing Market Report.
“Earlier this year, hot markets did start to cool off before those cooler markets started to firm up, which is why the first bit of this year looked so weak,” Cathcart goes on to say.
Still, this summer hasn’t been as busy for Canadians on the move compared to previous years as July’s home sales are down 5.3% compared to the same time last year.
And CREA recently downgraded its 2026 forecast for home sales.
But while 2026 got off to a slower start than expected, four consecutive months of increasing sales suggest the market has started to regain some footing.
Housing market is getting closer to balanced
One number that helps tell that story is the sales-to-new listings ratio. In July, it tightened to 51.3%, up as sales edged higher and the number of newly listed properties fell 1.6% from June.
For context, CREA considers a sales-to-new listings ratio between roughly 45% and 65% to generally represent balanced housing market conditions. The long-term national average is 54.7%.
There were 205,388 properties listed for sale across Canadian MLS® Systems at the end of July, just 0.6% more than a year earlier and 1.5% above the long-term average for that time of year.
That worked out to 4.7 months of inventory nationally, which is the lowest level so far in 2026 and slightly below the long-term average of five months.
Again, though, the national number only tells part of the story.
Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador remained borderline sellers’ markets in July, according to CREA, while inventory levels in most other provinces have been moving closer to their respective long-term averages.
Ontario is perhaps one of the better examples of how quickly the picture can change. After sitting in buyers’ market territory through the first four months of 2026, the province’s months-of-inventory measure had moved considerably closer to average by July. In the spring, inventory levels sat at 5.5 months. A normal Ontario market, Cathcart says, is around 3.5 months. As of July, it’s back to about 4.5 months.
Home prices are also showing signs of stability
Then there are prices. The seasonally adjusted National Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) edged up 0.1% between June and July.
It’s nothing to write home about, but it was the first monthly increase in the national MLS® HPI since November 2024.
On a year-over-year basis, the HPI was still down 3.3%. However, those annual declines have been getting smaller since the beginning of the year, with July recording the smallest decrease since October 2025.
The actual national average sale price, meanwhile, came in at $674,819 in July, up 0.2% from the same month in 2025.
Average prices were lower year-over-year in British Columbia (-1.3%) and Ontario (-3%), while several other provinces recorded increases. Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island were both up more than 5%, Quebec was up just over 5%, and Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador also posted annual gains.
So, while the Canadian average price was virtually unchanged from last July, what buyers and sellers experienced locally could have looked quite different depending on which side of a provincial border they were on.
What does the housing data for July suggest?
There’s more evidence that housing markets across the country are gradually moving away from some of the more pronounced buyers’ and sellers’ market conditions we’ve seen over the past year and towards something a little more balanced.
For buyers, that can mean having more time to make decisions without quite as much pressure from competing offers in some markets. For sellers, it can mean adjusting expectations to a market where pricing and presentation matter that much more.
A REALTOR® who knows your local market can help you understand what’s happening where you actually plan to buy or sell and what the latest numbers mean for you.
Contact a REALTOR® today if you’re thinking about buying or selling a home!
— REALTOR.ca