Bob McDonald
Scotiabank: Canada Housing Market: Still at the doorstep of a recovery, but hesitant to knock at the door
Aug 23
2024National housing resale conditions softened from June to July as reflected by the modest decline in the sales-to-new listings ratio. Over this period, national sales declined by 0.7% (sa m/m) while new listings increased 0.9%. In July, sales were higher by 4.8% (nsa) compared to the same month in 2023.
After increasing from May to June, the sales-to-new listings ratio—which reflects how tight resale conditions are—edged down to 52.7% from June to July, essentially back to its May level, and still within the range for balanced national resale market conditions (of between 45% to 65%).
Months of inventory remained unchanged over this period at 4.2, still below its long-term (pre-pandemic) average of 5.3. And since the national market aggregates very different regional markets, there are wide variations in terms of how this indicator compares to its long-term average across provinces, ranging from less than 2 weeks above average in Ontario and British Colombia and Ontario to 5.7 months below in New Brunswick.
About 2/3 of the markets witnessed a decline in their sales-to-new listings ratio from June to July. Consequently, the number of sellers favouring markets declined from 10 in June to 5 in July while the number of balanced markets increased from 16 to 22.
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