While Canada may be home to two of the worst housing bubbles in the world, high interest rates and costs of living in general have meant a massive tumble in once red-hot housing markets, in both sales volumes and average prices.

Toronto is still extremely unaffordable, but prices are actually far lower than they were at this time last year, according to the latest numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), which released a new survey of the residential real estate landscape this week.

The report leads with the fact that demand from would-be homeowners has been steadily increasing for months now, climbing at a higher rate than available supply is.

“With interest rates at a top, and home prices at a bottom, it wasn’t all that surprising to see buyers jumping off the sidelines and back into the market in April,” says Shaun Cathcart, CREA’s Senior Economist.

More details 👇 #CREAStats pic.twitter.com/orwPPM447N

— CREA | ACI (@CREA_ACI) May 15, 2023

Though the number of home sales in April was 19 per cent lower than the same time last year, it was up 11.3 per cent compared to the month prior, which is a noted spike.

Meanwhile, the number of newly-listed properties remains at a 20-year low, though it did rise slightly, by 1.6 per cent month-over-month.

Still, despite a gradual recovery, prices in many major cities are down year-over-year rather than up; in Toronto, the average home clocked in at 8.3 per cent less last month than in April 2022, per CREA numbers analyzed by the CBC.

The 6ix is still leading the Canadian market as far as price point, with an average price of $1,102,749, beat out only by Vancouver, where prices are down 3.7 per cent year-over-year and the typical home now costs $1,241,317.

The MLS Home Price Index surged a meagre 1.6 per cent nationwide from March to April, but was down a pretty substantial 12.3 per cent versus April 2022. But, the association notes that the actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price posted only a 3.9 per cent decline, and was $103,500 higher than in January of this year, hitting $716,000.

"Over the last few months, there have been signs that housing markets were going to heat back up this year, so it wasn’t a surprise to see things take off after the Easter weekend, which often serves as the opener to the spring market," the release on the new stats reads, going on to assert that "demand is once again returning at a scale that is outpacing supply."

The sales-to-new listings ratio across the country now sits at 70.2 per cent, compared with 64.1 per cent in March and a long-term average of 55.1 per cent.

April home resales spurted 11.3% m/m nationwide the strongest monthly advance almost 3 years
Prices rose in back-to-back months, including 1.6% m/m gain in April for the MLS Home Price Index
Demand-supply conditions suddenly appear tight,sellers are back in the driver’s seat
-RBC pic.twitter.com/3D9zDxiJkh

— Akshay Solanki (@akshay_sol) May 15, 2023

Sales activity may be up, but there have still been considerable price drops not just in Toronto, but also — and moreso — in other cities around the GTA.

Seasonally-adjusted figures from the CBC show Windsor-Essex prices have fallen a whopping 16.5 per cent year-over year (from $631,667, on average, to $527,482), followed by St .Catharines (down 14.2 per cent to $710,715), London and St. Thomas (down 13.5 per cent to $634,864), Hamilton-Burlington (down 11.2 per cent to $876,229), and Kitchener-Waterloo (down 11 per cent to $789,359).