Canadian home sales inch higher
“June’s housing numbers continued to build momentum following the late start to the year in May, with virtually every metric moving in the right direction,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist.
“Fixed mortgage rates have eased from their peak in April, and rate hikes from the Bank of Canada this year are much less likely than they were just a month ago. Home prices are no longer falling in most of the markets where they were previously, which had likely been keeping a lot of buyers waiting on the sidelines.”
The easing of five-year Government of Canada (GoC) bond yields from their spring peak is a key driver of that fixed-rate relief, with yields having retreated from the levels that pushed lender pricing sharply higher in March and April.
Alongside the June figures, however, CREA revised its annual outlook lower. The association now forecasts 463,336 residential sales in 2026, a 1.4% decline from 2025, reversing a previous projection of a 1% gain.
It attributed the downgrade to a weaker-than-expected first half and the lasting drag from the bond-yield-driven rate spike that dampened sentiment at the height of the spring market.
