The outlook for the housing market has brightened in recent months despite the ongoing tariff turmoil, which has seen US president Donald Trump threaten fresh levies on Canadian imports, and stubbornly high mortgage rates.
The Bank of Canada has kept rate cuts on ice over the summer, opting not to trim its benchmark rate as it assesses how that trade dispute is impacting the Canadian economy and inflation.
But CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the latest sales figures are a positive sign for Canadian housing, even though those trade threats continue to linger. “At the national level, June was pretty close to a carbon copy of May, with sales up about 3% on a month-over-month basis and prices once again holding steady,” he said in the association’s press release.
“It’s another month of data suggesting the anticipated rebound in Canadian housing markets may have only been delayed by a few months, following a chaotic start to the year – although with the latest 35% tariff threat, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
New listings inched slightly lower, falling by 2.9% last month compared with June, pushing the sales-to-new-listings ratio higher – to 50.1%, compared with 47.3% in May.