Market update February 2024: Surprising & promising growth

The housing market capped off 2023 with surprisingly positive numbers. Could this mean an early onset of a spring rebound?

• The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reports that the average national home price was $657,145 in December, up 2% from November and 5% year over year.

• CREA also reports a 8.7% surge in month-over-month home sales in December, ending the year on a high note.

• The country’s sales-to-new-listings ratio (SNLR) jumped from 49.8% in November to 57.8% in December, teetering on the edge of a seller's market while technically remaining in balance. Ontario has already crossed this threshold, boasting an SNLR of 86%.

• “The real test of the markets’ resilience will be in the spring,” says Larry Cerqua, Chair of CREA. “There are only a couple of months left until that gets underway.”

• Meanwhile, on January 24, Bank of Canada held its key overnight interest rate at 5% for the fourth time in a row. The expectation is still that interest rate cuts will lower borrowing costs in Q2.

• And on the supply side, total monthly housing starts were down 2.1% from 255,198 units in November to 249,898 in December 2023, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

• How are rentals doing? Very well at the moment. According to Rentals.ca, the average national asking rent in December jumped back to its record high of $2,178 – up 8.6% year over year.

• Ontario apartment rents averaged $2,446, with the largest annual increases recorded in Waterloo (+14.4%) and East York (+12.2%).

• As for the recent federal cap on international students and the failure to meet provincial construction goals, Rentals.ca comments that the impact on rental demand should become clearer in the coming months.

More rental market headlines

2024 will see rents boom in Alberta, lag in Ontario and BC – Storeys

Could mass timber construction help ease the housing crisis? – PayProp

Ontario city set to impose ‘1st-of-its-kind’ bylaw preventing renovictions – Global News