The figure of 688,000 USD is lower than the figure of 696,000 USD in April and slightly higher than the figure of 716,000 USD in March, which shows that although the early comparison with COVID shows that the market is hot, it is actually cooling.

CREA Chairman Cliff Stevenson said: “Although the real estate market across Canada is still very active, we now have two months of activity slowing down, with demand, supply and prices.”

In addition to prices, the volume of home sales appears to be declining compared to the peak reached in March 2021.

Over 50,000 houses were sold that month, more than twice the sales volume in the same period last year. But May 2020 was the slowest May on record for home sales, as the nascent COVID-19 pandemic has greatly curbed sales.

“Provide fatigue” evidence

Sales of homes reached nearly 70,000 units in March, but they have fallen by 11% in the next two months and are now down by 7%.

Stevenson said: “There is increasing anecdotal evidence that buyers are tired and frustrated with the offer. Given the pandemic situation we are currently in, it is expected that the urgency of locking a place to protect against COVID will also be at this time. Weakened.”.

CREA stated that the average selling price may be misleading because it may be biased by the sale of expensive homes in expensive markets such as Toronto and Vancouver. This is why it lists a different number called the house price index, which is adjusted according to the number and type of houses.

But even the HPI in May rose by more than 24%, the highest increase on record. But “it is unlikely to rise higher at the moment,” CREA said, partly because price increases have slowed down month by month, especially in Ontario.

Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s chief economist, said: “Maybe we finally have other things to consider besides housing and staying at home.” “At least for now, tunnels. The light at the end is so close, it feels like housing might take a back seat. All of us will start to normalize our lives this summer.”