Canada National Real Estate Market Snapshot — June 2026

By Ron Alfred De Guzman, MaxWell Realty Insights | July 29, 2026

Momentum is building after a slow start to the year. National home sales edged up 0.5% month over month in June, building on May's 5.5% jump and April's 0.9% gain. That puts activity roughly 7% above where it stood in March. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales came in 0.9% above June 2025.

The market is tightening toward balance. New listings fell 1.3% month over month, the second straight monthly decline. With sales rising and listings pulling back, the national sales-to-new-listings ratio climbed to 50.2%, the first time in 2026 it's been back above the 50% mark, against a long-term average of 54.8%. Active listings sat at 208,578, essentially flat year over year (+0.6%). Months of inventory held at 4.8, unchanged from May and the lowest reading so far this year, just under the five-month long-run average. For reference, CREA considers below 3.6 months a sellers' market and above 6.4 months a buyers' market, so the national picture remains close to balanced.

Prices are stabilizing, not yet recovering. The MLS Home Price Index was flat month over month, the first time it hasn't declined since January 2025, and down 3.6% year over year, the smallest annual decline since last October. The actual national average price, which is more sensitive to the mix of what's selling, rose 0.5% year over year to $696,078. Regionally, prices are still down year over year in BC, Alberta, and Ontario, though those declines are narrowing, while Nova Scotia posted its first year-over-year price decline in more than three years.

Outlook. CREA's economist framed June as a turning point, noting fixed mortgage rates have eased since their April peak and further Bank of Canada hikes look less likely, both supportive for buyers who'd been sitting on the sidelines. CREA expects a busier second half of 2026, though it has trimmed its full-year forecast to 463,336 sales (down 1.4% from 2025) and a national average price of $686,710 (up 1.1% for the year).

Bottom line: Canada's national market spent the first half of 2026 clearing out excess inventory and re-establishing footing. June marks the clearest signal yet that conditions are normalizing, sales rising, listings pulling back, and prices no longer sliding, setting up what CREA expects to be a more active fall market after Labour Day.

Momentum is building after a slow start to the year. National home sales edged up 0.5% month over month in June, building on May's 5.5% jump and April's 0.9% gain. That puts activity roughly 7% above where it stood in March. Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales came in 0.9% above June 2025.

The market is tightening toward balance. New listings fell 1.3% month over month, the second straight monthly decline. With sales rising and listings pulling back, the national sales-to-new-listings ratio climbed to 50.2%, the first time in 2026 it's been back above the 50% mark, against a long-term average of 54.8%. Active listings sat at 208,578, essentially flat year over year (+0.6%). Months of inventory held at 4.8, unchanged from May and the lowest reading so far this year, just under the five-month long-run average. For reference, CREA considers below 3.6 months a sellers' market and above 6.4 months a buyers' market, so the national picture remains close to balanced.

Prices are stabilizing, not yet recovering. The MLS Home Price Index was flat month over month, the first time it hasn't declined since January 2025, and down 3.6% year over year, the smallest annual decline since last October. The actual national average price, which is more sensitive to the mix of what's selling, rose 0.5% year over year to $696,078. Regionally, prices are still down year over year in BC, Alberta, and Ontario, though those declines are narrowing, while Nova Scotia posted its first year-over-year price decline in more than three years.

Outlook. CREA's economist framed June as a turning point, noting fixed mortgage rates have eased since their April peak and further Bank of Canada hikes look less likely, both supportive for buyers who'd been sitting on the sidelines. CREA expects a busier second half of 2026, though it has trimmed its full-year forecast to 463,336 sales (down 1.4% from 2025) and a national average price of $686,710 (up 1.1% for the year).

Bottom line: Canada's market spent the first half of 2026 clearing out excess inventory and re-establishing footing. June marks the clearest signal yet that conditions are normalizing, sales rising, listings pulling back, and prices no longer sliding, setting up wnational hat CREA expects to be a more active fall market after Labour Day.