The Canadian Real Estate Association has downgraded its forecast for home sales activity in 2026, while the number of homes across the country sold in March fell 2.3% from a year earlier.
CREA is now expecting a total of 474,972 residential properties to be sold throughout the year, which would be 1% more than 2025, down from its previous forecast in January of 5.1% growth year over year.
The national average home price is forecast to rise 1.5% on an annual basis to $688,955 in 2026, which would be around $10,000 lower than predicted in January.
In March, the national average sale price fell 0.8% compared with a year earlier to $673,084.
CREA’s own home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, edged 0.4% lower between February and March, but dropped 4.7% on a year-over-year basis.
The association says national home sales were virtually unchanged on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, as rising global economic uncertainty, along with a jump in fixed mortgage rates tied to incoming higher inflation, “piled on to an already shaky economic start to the year.”