The number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems climbed 3.6% between April and May 2025, marking the first gain in activity since last November, according to a report released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The monthly increase was led by the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Calgary, and Ottawa, it said.
“May 2025 not only saw home sales move higher at the national level for the first time in more than six months, but prices at the national level also stopped falling,” said Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist. “It’s only one month of data, and one car doesn’t make a parade, but there is a sense that maybe the expected turnaround in housing activity this year was just delayed for a few months by the initial tariff chaos and uncertainty.”
May Highlights:
- National home sales were up 3.6% month-over-month.
- Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 4.3% below May 2024.
- The number of newly listed properties rose 3.1% on a month-over-month basis.
- The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) was almost unchanged (-0.2%) month-over-month and was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis.
- The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis.
Photo: Vitaly Gariev
New supply rose by 3.1% month-over-month in May. Given a similar increase in sales activity, the national sales-to-new listings ratio was 47%, almost unchanged from 46.8% in April. The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9%, with readings between 45% and 65% generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions, explained CREA.
There were 201,880 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of May 2025, up 13.2% from a year earlier but remaining about 5% below the long-term average of around 211,500 listings for the month, it said.
“May saw an increased number of new listings hitting the market early in the month, followed by a higher number of transactions in the second half of the month, so overall more sellers and buyers compared to April,” said Valérie Paquin, CREA Chair. “It seems like this may carry over into June as well.”
There were 4.9 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of May 2025, near the long-term average of five months of inventory. Based on one standard deviation above and below that long-term average, a seller’s market would be below 3.6 months and a buyer’s market would be above 6.4 months, said the report.
“The National Composite MLS Home Price Index (HPI) was relatively unchanged (-0.2%) from April to May 2025. The pause follows on the heels of three straight month-over-month declines of closer to 1%. The non-seasonally adjusted National Composite MLS® HPI was down 3.5% compared to May 2024. The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price was $691,299 in May 2025, down 1.8% from May 2024,” added CREA.
Rishi Sondhi, Economist, TD Economics, said May’s sales gain (alongside the modest upward revision to April) suggests that pent-up demand built up earlier in the year is beginning to creep back into the market.
“However, the economic backdrop remains uncertain, and we’d need to see more gains before confidently declaring that buyer sentiment is out of the doldrums. It’s also worth noting that earlier weakness still suggests that home sales are on track to decline in the second quarter,” said Sondhi.
“Even if we see these gains moving forward (which is our current view), exceedingly loose conditions in B.C. and Ontario should help to restrain price growth in these markets, and by extension, Canada overall.”
Mario Toneguzzi
Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Entrepreneur. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 and 2024 as one of the top business journalists in the world by PR News. He was also named by RETHINK to its global list of Top Retail Experts 2024 and 2025.
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