National home sales in February up nearly 20% compared with year ago

The Canadian Real Estate Association says February home sales jumped 19.7 per cent compared with a year ago.

The association says the increase in part reflected weakness last year, as the result for February 2023 was one of the lowest for the month in the past two decades.

On a month-over-month basis, CREA says seasonally adjusted home sales in February dipped 3.1 per cent compared with January.

CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says February could end being the "last relatively uneventful month of the year" for home sales, due to pent up demand that has been put on hold amid the high interest rate environment.