Canadian Home Sales Continue to Climb in July, National Benchmark Price Remains Steady: CREA

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems climbed 3.8 per cent on a month-over-month basis in July 2025.

Building on gains recorded over the previous three months, transactions are now up a cumulative 11.2 per cent since March.

The July increase in home sales was led by the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where transactions have now rebounded a cumulative 35.5 per cent since March.

“With sales posting a fourth consecutive increase in July, and almost 4 per cent at that, the long-anticipated post-inflation crisis pickup in housing seems to have finally arrived,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist. “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.”

New supply did not change much month-over-month in July. In combination with the increase in sales, the national sales-to-new listings ratio rose to 52 per cent, up from 50.1 per cent in June and 47.4 per cent in May.

The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9 per cent, with readings roughly between 45 per cent and 65 per cent, which CREA notes is generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions.

According to CREA, there were 202,500 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of July 2025, up 10.1 per cent from a year earlier and in line with the long-term average for that time of the year.

“Activity continues to pick up through the transition from the spring to the summer market, which is the opposite of a normal year, but this has not been a normal year,” said Valérie Paquin, CREA chair. “Typically, we see a burst of new listings right at the beginning of September to kick off the fall market, but it seems like buyers are increasingly returning to the market.”

There were a total of 4.4 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of July 2025, dropping further below the long-term average of five months of inventory as sales continue to pick up. Based on one standard deviation above and below the long-term average, CREA noted that a seller’s market would be below 3.6 months and a buyer’s market would be above 6.4 months.

The National Composite MLS Home Price Index (HPI) remained unchanged between June and July 2025. The national benchmark price has also remained mostly stable since May, following declines in the first quarter of the year.

The non-seasonally adjusted National Composite MLS HPI was down 3.4 per cent in comparison to July 2024; a smaller decrease than the one recorded in June.

Based on the extent to which prices fell off in the second half of 2024, CREA advises to expect year-over-year declines to continue to shrink in the months ahead.

The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $672,784 in July 2025, increasing 0.6 per cent from July 2024.