The Canadian Real Estate Association says the country’s housing market continued to cool last month with home sales dropping by nearly 22 per cent since last year and almost nine per cent between April and May.
On a year-over-year and non-seasonally-adjusted basis, sales amounted to 53,720, a fall from 68,598 in May 2021.
Seasonally-adjusted sales for the month totalled 42,649, down from 46,644 in April.
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The association says the sales decreases were steeper in April, but May’s figures still resembled the levels of activity seen in the second half of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
May sales were down in three-quarters of all local markets, led by regions like the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton, the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa.
With rising mortgage rates weighing on sales, the association now expects 568,288 properties to change hands this year, a 14.7 per cent decline from the 2021 record but still the second-highest annual figure ever.
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