{"id":483436,"date":"2026-02-18T17:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T17:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:24:13","slug":"winter-wallops-canadas-housing-market-as-january-sales-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483436\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter wallops Canada\u2019s housing market as January sales plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The average selling price for a home in Toronto in January fell below the $1-million mark for the first time since 2021, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said earlier this month.Sammy Kogan\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Home sales across Canada fell to multiyear lows in January, as winter storms compounded a market chill already driven by trade upheaval and economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n

National home sales for the month fell by 5.8 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis from December, and by 16.2 per cent in real numbers compared with January, 2025, according to data released Wednesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association. In comparison, sales were up nearly 3 per cent year-over-year during the same time last year. <\/p>\n

A big reason behind the monthly slump was extreme winter weather disrupting real estate activity across Central and Southwestern Ontario \u2013 the most populous part of the country \u2013 according to Shaun Cathcart, senior economist for CREA<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we would consider a logistical suppression of the market, not a fundamental one,\u201d he said. \u201cMore noise than signal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Snowstorms and severe chills made it difficult to leave home, show properties or drive safely, he said. That will drive pent-up demand, effectively delaying transactions, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the old toothpaste tube analogy,\u201d he said. \u201cYou squeeze the toothpaste out of January, it shows up later on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The data also suggested listings are showing up early to start the year, signalling that sellers are eager to get going, according to CREA chair Val\u00e9rie Paquin. Newly listed properties jumped 7.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis while national average sale prices dipped 2.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis in January. <\/p>\n

The average selling price for a home in Toronto in January fell below the $1-million mark<\/a> for the first time since 2021, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

These monthly slumps are adding to an existing chill in the market driven by hesitancy from homebuyers still weathering a different kind of storm: the unravelling of decades of free trade and its seismic shocks across the national economy. <\/p>\n

Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said that the dominant force keeping the housing market \u201ca bit frozen\u201d right now is still global uncertainty, with buyers and sellers hesitant to budge while trade rules are being rewritten.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t foresee a dramatic market rebound any time soon. \u201cThe market is not strong by any stretch of imagination. We haven\u2019t seen any resolution to USMCA,\u201d he said, referring to negotiations over a renewal of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade. \u201cBut I believe on a yearly basis, the numbers will be a bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

They bought their condos in the pandemic. Now, they\u2019re stuck \u2018bleeding cash\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the current market is comparing today\u2019s period of extreme uncertainty to last January\u2019s relative stability \u2013 something that won\u2019t be the case going forward into spring. \u201cIn February and March, we were actually at peak uncertainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As buyers step back into the market as they usually do when the snow thaws, this may exacerbate demand.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cathcart predicts that 2025\u20132026 will be the year when first-time buyers re-enter the market in a meaningful way after being shut out for years. \u201cEspecially now that the bank said, \u2018Hey, rates, aren\u2019t going to get any better at this point.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Limited supply down the line could tip the scales and stabilize prices, said Mr. Tal, particularly in the lower end of the market that encompasses smaller attached and detached homes. In other words, while there might be \u201cpent-up demand,\u201d Mr. Tal said, it\u2019s set to unleash in a market with relatively few choices.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, buyers should expect fewer listings than anticipated because sellers will choose to wait rather than take risks in a weak market, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The average selling price for a home in Toronto in January fell below…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,2741],"class_list":["post-483436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-pf-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}