Voix True
News
Canada's Housing Market Forecast Downgraded Again as Recovery Stalls
CREA now expects home sales to fall 1.4% in 2026 even as June activity ticks up, with economists calling it a market still finding its footing
Published: July 27, 2026
The Canadian Real Estate Association has once again trimmed its outlook for the national housing market, even as fresh figures show a small pickup in activity last month. According to the association, home sales across the country are now projected to slip 1.4 per cent in 2026 compared with the previous year, a further downgrade from an already reduced forecast issued earlier this year.
CREA pointed to a mix of pressures that weighed on buyers through the first half of the year, including elevated borrowing costs tied to inflation and a faster-than-expected slowdown in population growth. Those headwinds have started to ease in recent months, the association said, but their lingering effects delayed what many had expected to be a rebound year for the market.
June data told a slightly more encouraging story, with national home sales rising half a percentage point from May and activity up almost one per cent compared with the same month last year. The national benchmark home price stood at roughly $657,700 in June.
Regionally, the recovery remains uneven. Prices in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta are still lower than a year ago, though the pace of those declines has been narrowing. Meanwhile, markets in the Prairies and Quebec that had been running hot are beginning to cool, a shift that analysts describe as a broader convergence toward more typical, balanced conditions across the country.
With prices stabilizing and interest rates holding steady in recent months, some economists suggest the improved certainty could eventually draw hesitant buyers back into the market, though a meaningful turnaround is not expected until later in the year at the earliest.
New Trump Tariffs on Canadian Goods Raise Cost Concerns for U.S. Homebuilders
2 weeks ago
Cape Coral Reclaims Crown as Top Florida Draw for Canadian Snowbirds
2 weeks ago
