Canada's spring housing market is showing more sellers than buyers, with record new listings in some cities
Canada's spring housing market has arrived with more sellers than buyers, leaving the country's most closely watched real estate indicators pointing in contradictory directions and doing little to settle the nerves of brokers navigating one of the most uncertain markets in years.
New data from regional real estate boards reveals a housing market in flux. While some cities recorded month-over-month gains in home resales during April — among them Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and the Fraser Valley — activity across most markets still trails year-ago levels.
Other cities, including Vancouver, Montreal, Regina and Saskatoon, saw further, if modest, declines in transactions.
The findings come from an analysis by Robert Hogue, Assistant Chief Economist at RBC Economics.
The throughline in all of it: more sellers. New listings climbed in the majority of markets that have reported April figures, reaching record highs in Montreal and Ottawa. That supply surge is fundamentally reshaping the balance of power at the negotiating table.
Toronto and Montreal: A tale of two recoveries
Toronto registered back-to-back monthly gains in home resales: 1.3% in March and 6.1% in April. That's a streak that may signal some tentative stabilisation after a 21% slide in the preceding five months.
However, April transactions remained 36% below the 10-year average, underscoring how far the market has yet to travel before returning to anything resembling normal.
Price data offers equally ambiguous signals. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board's MLS Home Price Index was unchanged month-over-month in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, but held 6.5% lower than a year earlier, marking the 25th consecutive month of annual declines.
The condo segment bore the heaviest losses, falling 8.9% year-over-year, with York and Durham regions each recording drops exceeding 11%. Single-family homes declined 6.2%.
The Canadian mortgage industry's latest rate outlook suggests borrowers and brokers alike are watching for any softening in lending conditions that could reactivate sidelined buyers in the Greater Toronto Area.
Despite ongoing rate volatility and affordability challenges, Janet Boyle of Royal Bank of Canada says Canada’s housing market is showing early signs of recovery as buyers re-enter with a more measured mindset.https://t.co/8CXWjku8JU
— Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine (@CMPmagazine) May 6, 2026
Montreal, meanwhile, is grappling with a different kind of pressure. Sellers poured into the market in April, pushing new listings to a record high. But buyers have not followed.
Resales are estimated to have fallen more than 4% from March on a seasonally adjusted basis — a stall that follows steady gains through 2023 and 2024.
Annual price appreciation has cooled markedly, with the median now up just 0.2% year-over-year for condos and 3.2% for single-family homes, compared to 2.4% and 6.5% respectively just two months ago.
Vancouver and Calgary: Correction continues
In Vancouver, April brought little relief. Seasonally adjusted transactions fell further from March, however slightly, as affordability and confidence barriers continue to suppress demand.
New listings rose nearly 10% from March, reversing three consecutive monthly declines, intensifying competition among sellers.
The MLS Home Price Index in Vancouver now sits 6.9% below year-ago levels, the steepest rate of annual decline since spring 2023, when an abrupt rise in interest rates triggered a rapid market correction.
Hogue's analysis suggests the current supply-demand imbalance points to further price weakness in the months ahead.
Calgary's market is edging toward more sustainable territory after the extraordinary pandemic-era highs, though the adjustment remains uneven. April resales ticked slightly higher from March but were still 5.7% below a year earlier.
Condos have absorbed the sharpest correction: transactions fell 27% and benchmark prices dropped 8.9% over the past 12 months.
Read more: Condos down, detached up: Vancouver mirrors Toronto's uneven outlook
Detached homes have fared better, with benchmark prices down just 2.7% and inventory actually beginning to shrink — a potential stabilising force if the trend holds.
Condo inventory, however, continues to expand, suggesting further price softening in that segment is likely near term.
What brokers need to watch this spring
The spring selling season — historically the most consequential period for Canadian housing — has yet to deliver the demand surge many were hoping for.
Buyer confidence remains fragile, weighed down by the ongoing trade dispute with the United States, elevated global uncertainty, a difficult job market and persistently strained affordability in the country's largest cities.
Hogue writes that conditions are unlikely to clarify materially until economic uncertainty begins to lift, leaving the market's mixed picture intact for the foreseeable future.
In more affordable regions, such as parts of the Prairies, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, sellers and buyers remain more evenly matched, with home values continuing to appreciate steadily. It is in these markets where broker business may hold greater resilience this spring.
Buyers retain the stronger hand in Vancouver and Toronto, where ample inventory sustains ongoing price corrections in Canada's least affordable housing markets.
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