Canadian Housing Market Update: May 2025

With the U.S. trade offensive hitting a peak in April, it was reasonable to expect Canada’s housing market to whither even further in May.

That wasn’t exactly the case.

While home sales for April 2025 were down almost 10% year-over-year, they showed virtually no decline since March. A month doesn’t equal a trend, so we can’t draw any conclusions just yet. But the stability we saw in April may be telling us that Canadians are growing tired of letting Donald Trump dictate their home buying decisions.

On a regional basis, home sales in April were far from consistent. Affordable markets — PEI, Newfoundland, the B.C. interior — enjoyed year-over-year sales increases while pricier ones — Ontario, Alberta, Vancouver — saw steep declines.

The lesson here is that affordability, not economic anxiety, remains the deciding factor for many Canadians home buyers. In April, buyers in Charlottetown and St. John’s had access to the same gloomy news as those in Toronto, but it didn’t stop them from pouncing.

Affordability isn’t likely to improve soon — home prices are softening, but mortgage rates have edged up and the cost of living remains an obstacle — so the stability we saw in April could be a best case scenario.

The housing train is way behind schedule, but at least it’s not at the bottom of a ravine.

Housing market winners and losers: April 2025

Home sales rose most notably in the following provincial markets (figures indicate year-over-year differences):

They fell the hardest in:

Those declines may require a little context.

In 2024, Alberta and Saskatchewan were arguably Canada’s steadiest real estate markets, and April was historically busy in Saskatchewan. A year-over-year dip isn’t shocking, especially in the current economic climate. Considering the steady run-up in prices in Alberta over the past two years, it was due for a slow down.

The numbers for Ontario and B.C. might be a little more concerning. Last year wasn’t exactly a triumphant one for home sales in either province, so double-digit declines indicate slower than normal activity. But that’s to be expected during a market correction: the priciest markets are generally the hardest hit.

Canadian home prices in April

Home prices remained fairly steady in April — or stubbornly high, depending on your perspective — a sign that the housing market hasn’t completely tanked.

The following is a list of the average sale price in some of Canada’s largest housing markets last month, and the amount they’ve changed since April 2024:

Note that the biggest declines in average price were in Canada’s two most expensive markets. That’ll be worrying for homeowners in those cities, but it’s not out of the ordinary.

What stands out as unusual are the gains in Victoria and Montreal. Average prices can be influenced by a few large sales in a particular month, but an 8% increase is a sign of strong demand and willing buyers.

Whether you’re a home buyer or homeowner looking to sell, it’s important to remember that the national average price you see in news articles — which is heavily influenced by Toronto and Vancouver — doesn’t come close to telling the story of what’s happening in your city.

Getting the perspective of a local real estate expert is the only way to know what kind of market conditions you could face.

As we saw in April, they might not be as bad as you think.