Two consecutive monthly releases from the Canadian Real Estate Association, read together, plus CREA's own forecast for the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
Headline figure
$674,819
The non-seasonally adjusted national average home price in July 2026, up 0.2% from the same month a year earlier, per CREA’s August 18, 2026 release. Sales climbed a further 0.5% month-over-month — the fourth consecutive monthly gain.
What the data says
CREA's housing market snapshot recorded 48,342 home sales across Canadian MLS® Systems in June 2026, up 0.9% from 47,921 a year earlier, against 96,640 new listings, down 1.4% year-over-year. The national average price for June was $696,078, up 0.5% from $692,447 in June 2025.
One month later, the average price had moved to $674,819 — a $21,259 drop from June's figure, even though sales themselves rose a further 0.5% month-over-month. That is not a contradiction: it is exactly the gap this hub's companion page on benchmark versus average price exists to explain. A national average price is an arithmetic mean of whatever actually sold that month, and it swings with the mix of properties changing hands, not only with underlying value. CREA's own benchmark index — the MLS® HPI — moved in the opposite direction, edging up 0.1% month-over-month in July for the first time since November 2024, precisely because it is built to filter that mix effect out.
| Metric | June 2026 | July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Home sales (MLS® Systems) | 48,342 (+0.9% YoY) | +0.5% MoM (4th straight monthly gain) |
| New listings | 96,640 (−1.4% YoY) | — (not restated in the July release) |
| National average price | $696,078 (+0.5% YoY) | $674,819 (+0.2% YoY) |
| National Composite MLS® HPI | — | +0.1% MoM (−3.3% YoY) |
| Sales-to-new-listings ratio | — | 51.3% |
| Months of inventory | — | 4.7 (lowest so far in 2026) |
Sources: CREA housing market snapshot, June 2026 and CREA Statistics, news release dated August 18, 2026 (July 2026 data). Cells marked — were not carried in that particular release — do not infer a value that was not stated.
A sales-to-new-listings ratio of 51.3% and 4.7 months of inventory both describe a market CREA itself frames as roughly balanced. CREA reads that as convergence toward long-run norms rather than a fresh swing in either direction: its release notes that with the exception of Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador — still borderline sellers' markets — other provinces have been moving their months of inventory back toward historical averages.
See the province-by-province page for what that provincial split looks like in more detail, since the national ratio hides real variation underneath it.
Published July 15, 2026, CREA's quarterly forecast puts national 2026 sales at 463,336 units and the national average price at $686,710, a 1.1% annual gain. For 2027 it projects sales climbing a further 3.7% to 480,567 units, with the average price up another 1.1% to $694,164.
Treat a quarterly forecast as exactly that — a projection CREA revises every quarter, not a guaranteed outcome. It is useful for planning conversations with clients about where the year is headed, not as a number to promise against.
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