Ottawa Home Sales Drop 1.3% in February, Prices Decline Further

Based on coverage from Investing.com, Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, The Star, Times Colonist, and Investment Executive.

Canada’s housing market stayed pretty quiet in February, with fewer homes selling and prices still drifting down. That’s the headline from new Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) numbers, though the group says there were early hints of more activity toward month-end.

The decline in Ottawa home sales comes amid broader economic trends, as the recent drop in Canada’s inflation rate to 2.3% may influence buyer sentiment moving forward, as discussed in our previous coverage on Canada's inflation rate.

The overall picture: buyers are cautious, sellers aren’t flooding the market, and the usual spring lift hasn’t kicked in yet.

Canada home sales dip in February 2026

Home sales recorded on Canadian MLS systems fell 1.3% in February compared with January on a seasonally adjusted basis, CREA reported. That follows a much sharper 5.8% drop in January, a month when severe winter weather was widely seen as adding drag to already-soft demand.

Compared with February 2025, sales were 8.1% lower on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to CREA. (One report also cites transactions down 1.8% year over year, highlighting how year-over-year comparisons can look different depending on adjustment methods.)

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said February largely continued January’s “quieter levels of activity,” but added there were signs the market was “starting to pick up speed toward the end of the month.”

Canadian home prices slide as market cools

Prices continued to soften. CREA’s MLS Home Price Index (HPI), which aims to track comparable homes over time, fell 0.6% from January and was down 4.8% from a year earlier.

The national average sale price tells a slightly different story: it was nearly flat, dipping 0.2% year over year to $663,828. That gap between the HPI and the average price is common, since the average can swing with the mix of homes sold (more condos vs. detached, more high-end markets vs. mid-sized cities), while the HPI is designed to control for that.

New listings fall and inventory holds

Supply also pulled back. Newly listed properties fell 3.9% month over month in February, reversing January’s jump in listings.

Even with fewer new listings, the market didn’t tighten dramatically. The national sales-to-new-listings ratio rose to 47.6% from 46.4% in January, still well below the long-term average of 54.8%. CREA considers a range of roughly 45% to 65% consistent with balanced conditions, so February is sitting near the lower edge of that band.

At the end of the month, there were 151,850 properties listed for sale across Canada, up 3.7% from a year earlier but 12.3% below the long-term average for this time of year.

CREA also pegged the national market at five months of inventory, unchanged from January and close to the long-term average. That national number hides big regional differences, with CREA noting only a handful of local markets are close to that level.

Toronto and Vancouver lead price declines

The pain remains most visible in the country’s most expensive markets. Benchmark prices posted some of the steepest declines in Toronto and Vancouver, down 7.9% and 6.7% month over month, respectively, according to one report pulling from the CREA dataset. Sales also fell in both markets, down 6.3% in Toronto and 9.3% in Vancouver.

CREA and other coverage also point to particular weakness in southern Ontario, especially the stretch between Windsor and Toronto, where activity has struggled for months.

Prairies show steadier demand and 2026 outlook

Some Prairie and western markets such as Edmonton and Winnipeg saw modest sales gains, while Montreal was described as flat.

Looking ahead, Cathcart said CREA still expects 2026 to be shaped by pent-up first-time buyer demand, after years of would-be buyers waiting for mortgage rates to “find a bottom.” The catch: he also suggested some buyers, particularly in Ontario and B.C., may keep waiting if they think prices have further to fall.

CREA’s next statistics update is scheduled for April 16, 2026, which should offer a clearer read on whether late-February momentum turns into a real spring market.

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