Benchmark prices remained largely flat, posting a 0.1% decline from July and coming in at $687,300 for the month.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the forecast appeared to be brightening as the real estate and mortgage industries gear up for fall homebuying season. “Activity has continued to gradually pick up steam over the last five months, but the experience from a year ago suggest that trend could accelerate this fall,” he said in prepared remarks.
“Part of what drives sales at different points in the year is the availability of a lot of fresh property listings for buyers to buy. For the fall market, that always happens right at the beginning of September, and this year was no exception.”
He said sales could “really pick up” in the next month or so – especially if the Bank of Canada decides to lower its benchmark rate at this week’s meeting, scheduled for September 17.
Listings were also higher for the month as inventory continued hitting the market. New supply was up 2.6% compared with August, although CREA highlighted that the sales-to-new-listings ratio fell for the first time in five months – dropping to 51.2%, down from 52% in July.