Canadian home sales down in November following slight October bump: CREA

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says seasonally adjusted home sales were down 3.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis in November.

The association says the move lower more than erased the gain seen in October and resumed the overall trend lower for the year.

The drop came as the number of newly listed homes fell 1.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis in November.

Home sales and prices have fallen this year as rising interest rates have increased the cost of borrowing for Canadians.

Compared with a year ago, actual home sales in November were down 38.9 per cent compared with November 2021.

The actual national average home price was $632,802 in November, down 12 per cent from the same month last year.

5:57 Halifax home prices holding steady heading into 2023 says Royal LePage

Last month, Canadian home sales amounted to the first monthly gain since February, CREA said, but analysts said they didn’t expect the market to pick up just yet because conditions have sunk below pandemic highs.

The association revealed that sales totalled 35,380 in October, a 1.3 per cent increase from September.

Meanwhile, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in November edged down 0.2 per cent compared with October.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in November was 264,159 units, down from 264,581 in October.

The result came as the annual pace of urban starts was flat at 242,644 units as multi-unit urban starts rose two per cent to 190,415, but single-detached urban starts fell seven per cent to 52,229.

The annual pace of starts in Toronto and Vancouver rose, but Montreal saw a drop.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,515.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts was 274,361 in November, down from 277,044 in October.