The massive retrenchment in activity a year ago heavily distorted the housing market picture in April. On the face of it, home resales and new listings skyrocketed 140% to 462% among Canada’s largest markets. But base effects vastly exaggerated these numbers. A focus on monthly (seasonally-adjusted) movements reveals signs of moderation across several housing markets in April. After soaring to outer space in prior months, home resales came down to a lower orbit\u2014still generally strong but less excessively so\u2014in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Montreal lost some altitude a couple of months earlier and has since remained largely in a holding pattern. Activity in Calgary and Edmonton, on the other hand, has yet to change trajectory. Both still trended higher last month despite the third wave of the pandemic reaching worrisome levels in Alberta. Whether or not moderating in April, all major markets continued to heavily favour sellers. Inventories generally remain low (despite rising somewhat), leaving few options for buyers to fight over and fueling widespread bidding wars. So it isn’t a surprise that home prices showed no signs of moderating. Quite the contrary, they escalated at a faster rate in April in all major markets, reaching new record highs in most markets (except in Alberta). Single-family homes are the undisputed hotter category everywhere but condo prices have gathered steam in recent months. We expect this trend to continue with a sharp deterioration in single-family home affordability (in both large and smaller markets) driving more buyers toward condos. <\/p>\n