Canadian home sales rise by 0.9 per cent between July and August: CREA

OTTAWA — The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales rose by 0.9 per cent between July and August, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

The growth came as roughly half of all local markets saw a month-over-month increase, led by the Greater Toronto Area, along with gains in Montreal and Edmonton.

Compared with a year ago, sales were down 3.8 per cent, a move CREA attributed mostly to declines in British Columbia.

CREA chief economist Gregory Klump says recent monthly sales decreases are diminishing, suggesting the housing market’s recent rebound might be starting to dissipate.

Between July and August the number of newly-listed home was unchanged as it hovered around 69,000.

CREA says the slight uptick in sales and the lack of new home listings pushed the Multiple Listing Service home price index up 2.5 per cent year-over-year.

The disparity between the two numbers also caused the sales-to-new listings ratio to increase to 56.6 per cent in August from 56.2 per cent the month before.

The Canadian Press