Canadian Home Sales Hit 31-Year Low in August as US Trade War Intensifies

Canada's housing market suffered a sharp setback in August 2026, with home sales falling 6.9% year-over-year to 37,504 transactions, according to data released Tuesday by the Canadian Real Estate Association. On a seasonally adjusted basis, activity slipped 0.7% from July, snapping three consecutive months of gains. The drop pushed sales to a 31-year low, a threshold highlighted by Fortune's coverage of the CREA report.

The deterioration coincided with a renewed escalation of the Canada-US trade war, as trade talks between the two countries broke down and both sides imposed fresh rounds of tariffs on each other's goods. CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart pointed to rising inflation risks and the prospect of looming interest rate hikes as additional headwinds that have weakened the economic environment and threatened to erode sales momentum for the rest of the year.

The benchmark home price held flat at C$657,400 (roughly US$472,800), down about 3% from a year earlier, while the national average sale price edged up just 0.6% year-over-year to $668,219. New listings rose 3.3% from July, adding supply into a softening demand environment. CREA had already revised its 2026 sales forecast down to 463,336 units, a 1.4% annual decline, a reversal from its January projection of 5.1% growth.