Canadian home prices fall 6% in April, down for second month in a row

Canadian home prices fell six per cent to $746,000 in April, as higher interest rates poured cold water on a red-hot real estate market.

Home sales fell 12 per cent nationally in April, with the biggest drops seen in big cities like Toronto, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday.

Prices peaked at a record high of more than $816,000 in February this year and average home prices have now declined for two months in a row. In March, the average price stood at $796,000, before falling another six per cent in April, which is typically a strong month for the housing market.

“Following a record-breaking couple of years, housing markets in many parts of Canada have cooled off pretty sharply over the last two months, in line with a jump in interest rates and buyer fatigue,” CREA chair Jill Oudil said in a statement.

CREA says the average selling price can be misleading because it is easily skewed by expensive and numerous sales in big cities like Toronto and Vancouver. It highlights a different number called the House Price Index as a better gauge of the market because it adjusts for the volume and type of homes sold.

The HPI shrank by 0.6 per cent in April, the first monthly decline in two years.

While prices are down from their recent peak, they remain up by about seven per cent from where they were a year ago.

Still, the numbers paint a picture of a housing market cooling from its feverish activity just a few months ago.

“The exorbitant run-up for more expensive units (like detached homes) during the pandemic may give way to a steeper decline,” TD Bank economist Rishi Sondhi said in a note to clients. 

“Moving forward, we expect prices to continue falling, reflecting the cooler demand backdrop.”