According to the Canadian real estate association (CREA) as supplies have dwindled and transactions remained historically high in the month of January, the average price of a Canadian home has continued to rise annually. Company chair Cliff Stevenson noted that January was “pretty quiet,” for new listings, with supply numbers unlikely to shift until warmer weather appears. This is according to CREA’s monthly national statistics report released today.

In the report, he had said that ‘The question is will that supply be overwhelmed by demand as it was last spring, or will we start to see the re-emergence of some of the many would-be sellers who have been hunkered down for the last two years?’ Here’s the information we have collected about Canada’s January housing market from the latest report of CREA

Slight Increase in Home Sales from December  

The number of homes that traded hands over MLS has grown by 1% between December to January. The actual number of transactions was over 10% in the month of January which was actually less than the monthly record established in January 2021. That was mostly the case throughout the second half of 2021 but January 2022 still reported the second-highest sales. 

There was an even split between local communities which reported the increase and decrease in the sales last month. Monthly new home supplies even had a double-digit drop. It fell by almost 11 percent. According to CREA, A pullback in the Greater Toronto Area made up more than half of the national decline. There were 1.6 months of inventory on a national basis by the end of the month. This is the level that ties with December 2021 for the lowest level ever recorded. 85% of local markets were categorised as seller’s market based on this ratio in January. The remaining 15% were in balanced market territory. 

“If that were to occur, similar to 2021, we’d likely see a massive number of sales take place which would get a lot of frustrated buyers into homeownership, and we’d likely see some cooling off on the price growth side if those offers are spread across more listings,” explained Cathcart. “Those are all things this market needs. It really comes down to how many properties come up for sale in the months ahead.” Cathcart is CREA’s senior economist.

There is a rise in average home price up to more than 20 percent as compared to 2021

The Aggregate Composite MLS Home Price Index (HPI) had increased 2.9 percent from December to January as market conditions stay persistently tight. This is similar to the gains reported in the last three months. The non-seasonally adjusted Aggregate Composite MLS HPI increased 28 percent yearly in January. 

Annual price growth was recorded in multiple communities

Several cities are found to have reported price increases after analyzing markets across the country.  Yearly price growth is “in line,” with the national figure at 28 percent in British Columbia, but lower in Vancouver and higher in other areas of the province. Alberta and Saskatchewan experienced annual price growth in the mid-to-high single-digit range, while Manitoba saw gains of 13 percent annually.

Price increases stayed above 30 percent in Ontario as the GTA caught up with the pace of gains. Prices increased between 25% to 40% yearly throughout the rest of the province. Montreal has reported growth of slight 20% increase. In the Maritimes, New Brunswick has seen prices rise 30 percent in New Brunswick, 27 percent in Prince Edward Island, and 12 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador year-to-year.