Canada: Homebuyers Snub Sellers to Start 2023

Existing homes sales declined 3.0% in January on a seasonally-adjusted basis, in line with our forecast. Falling sales were broad based, meanwhile, the average sale price of an existing home fell by 1.8% to $621K in January. The sales-to-new listings ratio fell to 50.7 from 54.0 in December. After last week’s outsized employment gain, Bank of Canada staff are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief following today’s spate of data, but there is a lot of data to come (e.g., January CPI inflation next week) before the next interest rate decision.