Real Estate Statistics in Canada

After a few years of steady price increases, property prices in many areas of Canada hit a record high earlier this year. However, how much prices have risen has varied across Canada, and even within provinces and territories.

In this article, we will look at the real estate statistics across Canada. We will also look at the current trends on the housing market and what is predicted to happen to the price of real estate in Canada.

Real Estate Statistics for Canadians

• The average house price has fallen by over $100,000 to $711,316 from February 2022 to May 2022.
• Newfoundland & Labrador has the cheapest average house price, while British Columbia is the most expensive province.
• Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia have the most expensive real estate markets.
• The cities of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec; Saguenay, Quebec; and Saint John, New Brunswick, have some of the cheapest real estate in Canada.
• Nova Scotia saw the biggest rise in property prices between May 2021 and May 2022 at 32%. The rise has been the slowest in Saskatchewan where prices went up by only 2.3% year-on-year.
• The number of houses sold fell from 63,280 homes in June 2021 to 48,176 in June 2022. This is a 24% reduction.
• The number of newly listed homes was up by 4.1% from May to June.
• House prices declined by 1.8% from May to June. However, the HPI was still up 14.9% in June 2022 compared to the year before.

Real Estate Terms

Before we get into the statistics, there are some terms we will refer throughout the article, which some people might not be familiar with. These terms are explained below.

Median Price: This is literally the price in the middle when all the property sales from a given time period have been arranged from the lowest to the highest. Half of the properties during that time period will have sold for less and the other half for more.

Average Price: We get the average price by adding together all the sales and then dividing the number by the total amount of sales. The average price is not always the most accurate measure since, for example, just one or two very expensive house sales will raise the average price.

Benchmark Price: This can be considered a typical sale price for a type of property in an area because the price is based on criteria that are commonly found in similar properties within the area. Estate agents use benchmark price when predicting a sales price for a property.

MLS: An abbreviation for the Multiple Listings Service. It is a database that lists properties for sale in a given area and is used by real-estate agents to find properties for potential buyers and to guide purchase offer negotiations. It is recognized as the most reliable and comprehensive data on real estate in Canada.

HPI: The Home Price Index is provided by the MLS and provides a clearer picture of market trends than median or average prices. It takes into account the type of homes sold and measures the rate of house price changes over time.

The average house price in Canada

The house prices in Canada reached an all-time high in February 2022 when the average home price was $816,720. Based on the data from WOWA Canada, the prices have since fallen and in May 2022, the average price was down by over $100,000 to $711,316. WOWA also reports that despite falling by 2% from April to May the MLS benchmark price increased 15% year-over-year to $839,100 from May 2021.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), house prices fell even further in June, when the national average home price was $665,850.

However, the national average house price is often skewed because of the large and expensive markets in places such as the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver, which also have the most active markets in Canada. If those two areas are taken out of the equation, the national average price is more than $110,000 lower.

What are the average house prices across the different provinces and territories?

The average price varies greatly between across Canada from under £300,000 in the cheapest provinces to close to a million dollars in the most expensive provinces.

We have listed the average prices in the Canadian provinces and territories in the table below. Note that there is no date for Nunavut. However, a report by CBC News from January 2022 shows that prices in Iqaluit, the territory’s capital rose sharply during 2021.

The cities with the most expensive real estate

Toronto, the capital of Ontario, recently surpassed Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time in a couple of decades as the city with the highest average house price. In both cities, the average house price now tops one million dollars with only $700 difference between the two cities. In May 2022, the average house price was $1,261,800 in Toronto and $1,261,100 in Vancouver. Hamilton in Ontario and Victoria in British Columbia, also have average house prices approaching one million.

What has been pushing the prices up in Canada until the last few months when the prices began to fall in most provinces and territories? The main reason has been the lack of supply to meet the growing demand. Many municipalities are trying to address this by building new homes to meet the needs of the residents and to stem the exponential price increases in some areas.

The Cities with the cheapest real estate

It is still possible to find cheaper real estate in Canada if you are willing to look outside the most popular areas. Listings from Point2Homes show that some of the most affordable property markets in Canada are in Saint John, New Brunswick, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and Saguenay, Quebec.

In Trois-Rivieres, an average home will cost only $168,800, with detached homes selling on average for $213,950. Saguenay is a little more expensive, with its $213,000 average house price and $231,910 for an average detached home.

According to a report by CREA, in Saint John, the average price of homes sold in June 2022 was $293,755, which is up 8.8% from the previous June. However, the benchmark price for single-family homes was $299,400, 30.1% more than in the previous year.

A closer look at real estate statistics in different parts of Canada

Ontario

In Ontario, the average home price fell by 5% from April 2022 to May 2022 and by 11% since March 2022. Regardless of the decline, the year-on year prices are still 9% higher. The housing market in the Greater Toronto Area slowed down significantly with transactions down by 39% compared to the year before.

The biggest May to May house price increases in Ontario were in Brampton at 15% and Hamilton at 14%. Ottawa’s price increases were below the average for the province with prices up 7.5% from the previous year.

Maritime Provinces

The Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island continued to outperform the rest of the country with the biggest increases in benchmark and average prices.

In Nova Scotia, the benchmark in May 2022 was $417,500, up 32% from May 2021 and the year-on-year price in New Brunswick rose by 30% to $296,700. Prince Edward Island saw a more modest annual price gain, with prices increasing by 19% and bringing the benchmark home price to $350,300.

Newfoundland & Labrador

The prices have increased slower in Newfoundland & Labrador compared to the Maritime provinces. In a year, the benchmark price went up by 9% in the province to $271,700 in May 2022. The province also saw a steep decline of 17% in house prices from this April to May.

The Prairie Provinces

The three Prairie Provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have seen lower price increases than the rest of the country. Manitoba has seen the biggest rise within the three provinces with prices up 15% year-on-year. In Saskatchewan, the increase from May to May was only 4% and decreased even further to 2.3% when comparing June 2021 to June 2022.

Alberta’s house price increase, 8%, sits in the middle of the other two Prairie Provinces. The average house price in Alberta in May 2022 was $477,009. The two major cities in Alberta saw very different price increases. In Calgary the prices have risen only by 2% since the year before, whereas the prices in Edmonton have seen a 10% annual increase.

British Columbia

Even though Toronto has overtaken Vancouver as the most expensive city to buy real estate, British Columbia is still the most expensive province. The year-on-year prices were up by 8% in May despite a 6.5% decline from this April to May.

The biggest increases within the province have been in Powell River where prices have gone up by 43% in a year and Vancouver Island with 31% increase compared to last year.

Quebec

House prices in Quebec have risen by 15% in a year and the average home price in May 2022 was $514,925. The biggest cities in the province Montreal and Quebec City saw the benchmark prices increase 11% and 17% respectively.

The Territories

Both Yukon and the Northwest Territories have seen their average year-on-year house prices go up. Since May 2021, the prices were up by 8% in Yukon and 7% in the Northwest Territories. There is no data listed for Nunavut.

How many homes were sold in June 2022?

According to a report by Global news, home sales fell again in June, but the rate was smaller than in April or May. There was a drop of 24% compared to the previous June when 63,280 homes were sold across Canada. In June 2022, the number was 48,176.

The Scotiabank says in its report about the housing market in June 2022, that the number of house sales fell 5.6% compared to May. The decline has been clear in most parts of Canada with sales falling in 26 out of 31 Scotiabank’s markets.

The biggest falls were in the urban centres in Ontario, including Toronto, London, Ottawa, Barrie, Hamilton and Guelph. Urban centres in British Columbia such as Vancouver, Victoria and Okanagan-Mainline also saw a deep decline. Sales also went down in Edmonton and Calgary. The national level of sales is now close to pre-pandemic levels.

How many homes were listed for sale in June?

Part of the reason house prices fell again in June was the number of newly listed homes on the market. The number rose by 4.1% compared to May. According to CREA, the increase was largely influenced by a new supply of homes in Montreal. However, some areas, including the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver, saw small declines in the number of new listings in June.

Scotiabank reports listings increased in 75% of their local markets, which has shifted the market more towards a balanced or a buyers’ market rather than a sellers’ market. Two areas, Saint John in New Brunswick and St. John’s in Newfoundland & Labrador, still have sellers’ markets.

The prices of all property types were affected by the decline

Despite the HPI still being 14.9% higher in June 2022 compared to June last year, this June was the second month in a row when all types of property saw declining prices. The biggest decline was in the price of one-storey family homes, which fell by 2.8% since May.

The month-on-month price of two-storey family houses fell by 1.7%, apartments by 1.4% and townhouses by 1.3% from May to June. The average decline for all types of property was 1.8%.

What is predicted to happen in the second half of 2022 and in 2023?

According to the Canadian Real Estate Magazine, the prediction is that house prices will fall over the next few years. The prediction is that the prices will increase slower during the rest of this year and will actually fall in 2023.

The slow down and eventually the predicted decrease in prices will be down to different factors, including inflation and higher interest rates. The government may also introduce initiatives such as banning foreign buyers to help control the housing market.