From Scotiabank

National housing sales posted a fifth consecutive increase in August. The sales-to-new listings ratio edged down nationally from July to August as new listings rose at a faster pace than sales. The national MLS House Price Index declined mildly in August, hence still on its downward trend since summer of 2023.

Housing sales rose 1.1% (sa) nationally from July to August, the fifth consecutive monthly gain since their most recent trough in March of this year. The cumulative increase in national sales since March is 12.5%, but they were 7.4% weaker in August than their most recent peak achieved last November. In August, national sales rose 1.9% (nsa) from their level in the same month of 2024. New listings increased 2.6% from July to August (sa) and by 6.1% (nsa) since August 2024. They have been mostly trending up since early 2023 and were approaching in August their level just before the Bank of Canada started tightening its policy rate in March 2022.

With the rising pace of national new listings exceeding that of sales in August, the national sales-to-new listings ratio edged down from 52% in July to 51.2% in August. This indicator of housing market conditions has been in the lower half of our estimated balanced conditions’ range (of between 44.7 and 66.1%) since 2025 began. The other indicator of market conditions—months of inventory—stayed unchanged from July to August at 4.4 (sa figures), still below its pre-pandemic long-term average of 5.2. This indicator of market conditions has eased since its most recent trough in November 2024 when it was at 3.7.

The national MLS House Price Index (HPI) edged down -0.1% (sa) from July to August with all unit types contributing to this monthly decline, except for 1-storey singles (+0.2%). 2-storey singles and apartment units both posted a -0.2% monthly decline in August while townhouse units declined -0.3%. From August 2024 to August 2025, the MLS HPI declined -3.4% (nsa), and all unit types contributed to this annual decline. The largest annual declines were observed for apartments (-5.3%) and townhouses (-4.6%) while the smallest decline was observed for 1-storey single units (-1.1%). The National MLS HPI in August was near 18% below its March 2022 level (sa figures)—the month when the Bank of Canada started tightening its policy stance—and more than 26% above its pre-pandemic (December 2019) level.

Sales increased in about 60% of local markets we track from July to August while new listings increased in near 55% of them. Market conditions—as measured by the sales-to-new listings ratio—eased in just below 50% of these local markets over this period.

https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/economics/economics-publications/post.other-publications.housing.housing-news-flash.september-15--2025.html