Canadian housing sales increased nationally in April after five months of consecutive declines, said Scotiabank after Thursday's data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
But both indicators of market conditions the bank reports suggest "still-soft" conditions nationally. The MLS HPI for all markets continued to decline in April.
The number of housing sales in units increased 0.7% seasonally adjusted from March to April, its first monthly rise since October 2025. Sales increased in 17 of the 31 markets Scotiabank tracks from March to April, with the strongest increases posted in Barrie (18.8%), St. Catharines (18.2%) and Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island; 16.6%).
National sales declined 4% non-seasonally adjusted over the 12-month period ending in April 2026.
The good news this month is that national housing sales in units increased in April, but it is clearly too soon to claim they are on a recovery path, stated the bank. National housing conditions are still soft, as reflected by its sales-to-new listings ratio that has been hovering in the lower half of the range for balanced market conditions for most of the period since March 2022.
In addition, the downward trend in the national MLS HPI since early 2022 -- which continued in each month so far in 2026 -- adds support to Scotiabank's call for weak market conditions nationally.
The bank can reasonably say that the national housing market is still too weak to support a sustained rise in house prices, and that housing sales would have been weaker without that trend decline in house prices as reflected by the MLS HPI.
Scotiabank still predicts housing market conditions to start improving sustainably near the end of this year and in 2027 as the headwinds from ongoing trade frictions and recent geopolitical events wane, which will improve confidence and expected income conditions for potential buyers.