From January to February, Canadian homes sales plummeted 9.1% to reach their lowest level since November 2012.

After such a sharp month-over-month decline, the largest recorded since the B-20 stress test came into effect in January 2018, March’s numbers provided a welcome change of pace.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, sales rebound with a positive month, edging up 0.9% with a 2.1% increase in newly listed homes as well.
 

Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, said that March’s results suggest local market trends are largely in a holding pattern.

“It will be some time before policy measures announced in the recent Federal Budget designed to help first-time homebuyers take effect,” said Jason Stephen, CREA’s president.

“In the meantime, many prospective homebuyers remain sidelined by the mortgage stress-test to varying degrees depending on where they are looking to buy.”

Although numbers increased a bit in March, activity is still fell 4.6% from March 2018 to March 2019.

In that same time, the national average sale price fell 1.8%.