The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in May were down compared with a year ago, but there was “meaningful upward momentum” month-over-month for the first time this year.
The organization said home sales in May totalled 47,014, down 5.1 per cent from May 2025. However, activity was up 5.5 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared with April this year.
Ottawa’s sales activity mirrored the national trend, the latest figures from the Ottawa Real Estate Board show.
A total of 1,616 homes changed hands in Ottawa last month, down 10.6 per cent from May 2025 but up 21 per cent compared with April of this year.
A total of 904 single-family homes sold in May, down 8.6 per cent from a year earlier. Townhouse sales totalled 481, a decline of 14.3 per cent, while 203 apartment-style properties changed hands, a drop of 12.1 per cent.
OREB says slower sales “are becoming a theme thus far in 2026” as economic uncertainty continues to weigh on the housing market.
“May brought the seasonal increase in activity we typically expect to see in Ottawa’s housing market, but sales continue to trail last year’s pace,” OREB president Tami Eades said in a news release.
“While economic uncertainty continues to influence consumer confidence, the key question moving into the summer market will be whether demand continues to keep pace with supply. The market remains active, but inventory levels, employment trends and buyer confidence will all play an important role in shaping the months ahead.”
Prices of single-family homes remained relatively steady compared with May 2025, OREB said, while average prices for townhomes and apartments saw modest declines.
The average residential sale price was $721,270 in May, up from $712,184 in April and 0.9 per cent lower than a year ago. The median sale price followed a similar pattern, rising to $660,000 from $650,000 in April while remaining 1.6 per cent lower than in May 2025.
OREB said the single-family category “remained resilient,” with average prices essentially unchanged year-over-year and the median price up 1.3 per cent. By contrast, townhomes and apartment-style properties saw both average and median prices fall below last year’s levels.
The composite benchmark price — which is meant to reflect the price of a “typical” home in Ottawa — ticked up 0.9 per cent from April but was still 0.6 per cent below May 2025, signalling “continued variation across market segments,” OREB said.
There were 3,351 new listings in Ottawa in May, a 2.2 per cent decrease from the previous year. The number of active listings rose to 4,917 units, up 12.2 per cent year-over-year and an 8.4 per cent rise from the 4,535 listings recorded in April.
Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s senior economist, said the month-over-month sales increase was broad-based across Canada but driven disproportionately by Ontario.
“While it was just the first month in 2026 to see any meaningful upward momentum in headline demand, under the surface conditions have been improving for some time,” he said in a news release.
“Sellers’ and buyers’ expectations are increasingly aligned, as evidenced by tightening sale-to-list price ratios and shorter periods between listing and sale dates. As a result, prices have largely stabilized following some softness earlier in the year.”
The national average sale price of a home sold in May was $702,079, up 1.5 per cent on a year-over-year basis. It was the highest national average price in two years and the first time the figure has topped the $700,000 mark in 23 months.
CREA’s home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, edged 0.1 per cent lower between April and May. The index was down 4.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis, the smallest year-over-year decline so far in 2026.
Regionally, prices remained down on a year-over-year basis in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, offsetting gains in other provinces.
Real estate analysts have described a tempered spring market amid cautious consumer behaviour. The sentiment is often linked to inflation and economic uncertainty associated with trade and international conflict.
Eddy Chang, a sales representative with Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate in Edmonton, said it’s been a “steady” spring thus far, especially compared with last year’s “turbocharged” spring market in that city.
“Things definitely boomed, but not to the point where it felt like it took off on a rocket,” he said in an interview.
“Definitely, you could feel the seasonality, but my boots-on-the-ground experience is that it was more of a steady pace rather than rocket fuel.”
In May, residential sales were down 12.5 per cent year-over-year in Edmonton, while activity ticked up 0.8 per cent month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis. Average sale prices rose 5.5 per cent from May 2025 and one per cent from April.
Chang said the second half of last year saw a considerable slowdown as the market adjusted to tariff-fuelled fears.
“Although it’s not gone, there’s less doom and gloom about it,” he said.
“Last year I had a couple clients that wanted to put their home search on pause because of these uncertainties and now people are back shopping, they’re coming out of the woodwork and they’re a lot more confident with their purchasing power.”
BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic said the combination of pent-up demand and a gradual relenting on price by sellers should start to bring volumes back into the market, and May’s data might be some evidence of that.
“The floor under Canada’s hardest-hit housing markets might be firming, even if we’re still unlikely to see a charged rebound,” he said in a note.
“We continue to see a long evolution in this housing cycle, and it appears that the price destruction phase is running its course, at least for single-family homes.”
May’s data is consistent with forecasts that national home sales “will grind higher through the second half,” added TD economist Rishi Sondhi.
“We also foresee a modest rise in Canadian average home prices in (the second half of 2026), backed by firmer gains in markets outside of Ontario, where supply/demand balances still favour buyers.”
CREA said new listings for May were down one per cent on a month-over-month basis.
There were just over 200,000 properties listed for sale across Canada at the end of May, unchanged from a year earlier and 2.8 per cent below the long-term average for that time of year.
— With additional reporting from OBJ staff
