Home sales have peaked for 2021, but prices keep climbing

September 27, 2021




An estimated 650,000 homes will sell across Canada in 2021, according to a forecast from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) based on projected transactions through the Multiple Listing Service.
This would be a record-setting number, and an increase of 18.8 per cent over 2020, though CREA noted that the sales pace has slowed from the strong pace in the first half of this year.
“We are well past the [sales] peak of activity everywhere at this point,” CREA noted in a September 15 release.
Demand in 2021 has been geographically broad-based and CREA anticipates strong sales growth in every province with the exception of Quebec.
The national average home price is forecast to rise by 19.9 per cent on an annual basis to $680,000 in 2021—little changed from CREA’s previous forecast.
This historically large increase reflects the current unprecedented imbalance of supply and demand—with only two months of inventory available—nationally.
This limited supply and higher prices, are expected to tap the brakes on activity in 2022 compared to 2021.
National home sales are forecast to fall by 12.1 per cent to around 577,000 units in 2022. Still, with supply at record lows, CREA forecasts the national average home price will rise by 5.6 per cent on an annual basis to around $718,000 in 2022.