(Ottawa) The Canadian Real Estate Association has lowered its forecasts for home sales and prices this year due to market weakness in Ontario and British Columbia.

The association says it expects approximately 449,614 residential properties to be sold in 2023 in Canada through Multiple Listing Service (MLS) systems, which would represent a decrease of 9.8% compared to 2022.

Meanwhile, the national average home price is expected to decline 3.3% on an annual basis to $680,686 in 2023.

By comparison, CREA’s previous forecast, released in July, called for a 6.8% decline in home sales this year, as well as a 0.2% decrease in the average price.

Separately, CREA reported Friday that September home sales were up 1.9% from the same month last year, but were down 1.9% from the month of august.

The actual national average home price was $655,507 in September, up 2.5% from September 2022.