Canada Existing Home Sales Drop 1.7% in April From March

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canada's existing-home sales fell in April, which marks the start of the historically busy spring season, and the number of properties available for sale reached their highest level since the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic.

National home sales declined 1.7% in April from the previous month, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday. On an unadjusted basis, transactions in April were over 10% higher than year-ago levels.

The real-estate data indicated that benchmark house prices, calculated in a similar fashion to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, were unchanged in April from March, but down 0.9% from a year ago--or the first such year-over-year drop since last June.

The association said there was roughly 4.2 months of housing inventory available on the market at the end of April 2024, which is up from 3.9 months at the end of March and the highest level since the onset of the pandemic.

Write to Paul Vieira at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-15-24 0932ET