Canada's Housing Market Finally Shows a Pulse as May Sales Jump 5.5%

After a spring that struggled to gain any traction, Canada's housing market showed real signs of life in May, with home sales climbing 5.5 per cent from April, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). It marked the first month in 2026 to post any meaningful upward momentum in national demand.

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said the increase was broad-based but disproportionately driven by Ontario, suggesting a recently introduced HST rebate on new home builds may have only briefly pulled buyer attention away from the resale market.

The monthly bump doesn't erase a softer year overall, since sales remained 5.1 per cent below where they stood in May 2025, but the underlying numbers pointed in an encouraging direction. New listings dipped one per cent month over month, and combined with the stronger sales figures, tightened the national sales-to-new-listings ratio to 49.2 per cent, up from 46.2 per cent in April. Inventory eased to 4.8 months of supply by the end of May, down from 5.1 months over the prior three months and edging closer to the long-run average of five months.

Prices, meanwhile, appear to have levelled off. The national composite MLS Home Price Index dipped just 0.1 per cent from April and was down 4.1 per cent from a year earlier, the smallest annual decline recorded so far in 2026. Cathcart said prices have largely stabilized after some earlier-year softness, though British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are all still seeing year-over-year declines, offset somewhat by gains in other provinces.

The headline figure came from the average price itself: at $702,079, Canada's non-seasonally-adjusted national average home price was up 1.5 per cent from a year earlier, its highest level in two years and the first time it has topped $700,000 in 23 months.

CREA chair Garry Bhaura noted the timing is favourable, since the handoff from May into June typically marks the start of the year's busiest home-buying season. Whether this month's momentum holds into the summer remains an open question, but for a market that spent much of 2026 waiting for a clear signal, May may be the closest thing to one yet.