After a couple of quiet years for Canada’s housing market, 2024 was expected to bring back more action and competition among buyers.
At the beginning of 2024, people hoping to buy homes were watching closely for signs that the Bank of Canada (Bo C) might finally lower interest rates after several years. But spring came and went without any changes to the key rate.
When the Bo C cut rates in June 2024-the first time since 2020-it didn’t really boost buyer enthusiasm much. They kept trimming rates through July, September, October, and December, dropping it by a total of 175 basis points (or 1.75 percentage points). Still, these cuts didn’t fully revive the market either.
At the same time, demand from buyers stayed low enough that the number of homes for sale went up across Canada. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national housing inventory hit 4.4 months in May-the highest since May 2020. More homes on the market gave buyers plenty to choose from and made it tougher for sellers to negotiate prices, keeping things pretty balanced most of the year.
By early 2025, inflation was under control and it looked like the Bo C was almost done cutting rates. Lower home prices combined with falling mortgage costs were expected to unlock some held-back demand during the year. But worries about possible U. S. tariffs have put a damper on buyer confidence and left uncertainty about what comes next from the Bank of Canada. On a brighter note, buying a home has become more affordable in many parts of Canada over the past year.
So where’s it best to buy property in 2025? Check out this year’s edition of Where to Buy Real Estate in Canada. This ranking has changed quite a bit since Money Sense started it back in 2009. This time around we teamed up with Zoocasa-an award-winning real estate search site-to dig into data and highlight top cities and areas across Canada along with neighbourhood picks in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Greater Toronto Area.
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Top spots for real estate: A national snapshot
Here are Zoocasa’s picks for best places to buy property across Canada in 2025 based on data from 44 regions. To see all results, swipe columns left or right with your mouse or fingers-or download them as Excel, CSV or PDF files. If you want help understanding how we got these numbers, check out our detailed methodology.
Source: Zoocasa
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What’s driving Canada’s housing market this year?
In 2024 many buyers stayed cautious because they were waiting for mortgage rates to drop further before jumping into purchases. Even though borrowing costs did go down during that time, lots of people waited until they felt sure rates wouldn’t fall more before making moves.
“The typical urgency to enter the spring market diminished in 2024,” says Carrie Lysenko, chief executive officer of Zoocasa. “This widespread hesitancy fostered a rare balance in the housing market-buyers re-engaged at a measured pace, which maintained a stable equilibrium between supply and demand that we hadn’t seen in years. With rates expected to stabilize in 2025, buyers will be emboldened with more confidence in their borrowing decisions.”
The average five-year fixed mortgage rate at early 2025 hovered just above four percent-a nice drop compared with nearly five percent last year at this time. Those rate cuts last year helped sellers feel better about listing their homes which caused new listings across most big markets to pick up-and that momentum carried over into this new year too: from December ‘24 through January ‘25 listings rose by eleven percent month-to-month while months of inventory climbed slightly from three-point-nine months up to four-point-two months.
This past year saw moderate growth nationally when it came sales volume overall but there were differences regionally too-while Ontario’s main cities cooled off during springtime activity spiked especially strong out west where Edmonton plus Regina showed eye-popping sales growth northward above fifty percent April-over-April!
The start of ’25 slowed sales down again nearly everywhere yet some western cities still saw solid spikes; Victoria had twenty-five percent jump January-on-January followed by twelve percent uptick seen Edmonton plus Winnipeg rising modestly four percent compared against same month prior whereas Toronto took an opposite track falling nine percent comparing yearly sales figures head-to-head.
Lysenko explains why Prairie provinces are getting noticed lately: “Due largely because prices held steady inside bigger city cores homebuyers continue spotting value pops outside crowded urban zones – particularly Prairies – which are quickly turning into hot spots themselves.” She adds how shifts happening due pandemic lifestyle reconsiderations affecting major hubs like Toronto & Vancouver mean lots more people rethink what kind living costs make sense anymore now than ever before.”
Around most markets examined here price increases stuck under three percent yearly throughout all last calendar year except few places far removed beyond those two big metro areas finished stronger pushing above five-percent annual gains coming into January including Quebec CMA (Quebec City & Lévis), Regina Saskatoon Saint John plus Edmonton all climbing higher than nine-percent averages so far calendar ’25 pricing looks flatish currently though may rev upward as spring heats up especially around Toronto/Vancouver corridors.”
