The Canadian Real Estate Association reports that January home sales dropped 16.2% year over year and 5.8% from December (seasonally adjusted), largely due to a major winter storm affecting southern Ontario. Meanwhile, new listings rose 7.3% month over month. By the end of January, 140,680 properties were listed on Canadian MLS systems—up 4.5% from a year earlier but still 11.4% below the long-term average for that time of year.

Ontario’s homebuilding industry showed signs of life in the first month of the year, with housing starts finally improving after years of persistent decline in the face of cratering pre-construction sales.

Rising delinquencies made renewal decisions far less forgiving