Canada housing market 2026: prices, costs, FSBO

There are two Canadian price numbers in circulation and they tell different stories. The simple national average sale price was CAD $702,079 in May 2026, up 1.5% year over year, and it crossed CAD 700,000 for the first time in about two years. But that average is skewed by which homes happen to sell, and right now more high-end deals are lifting it. The cleaner like-for-like measure, CREA's MLS Home Price Index, is down 4.1% from a year ago (a national benchmark of about CAD $667,700) and essentially flat month over month at -0.1%. For pricing your own home, treat the benchmark as the honest signal: values sit roughly 4% below last summer and are flattening out.

The big-city picture is softer than the national average suggests. In Toronto, the average selling price was about CAD $1,069,700 in May 2026, down roughly 4.6% year over year, while the cleaner MLS HPI benchmark was near CAD $946,500, down about 6.7% (the typical condo apartment averaged near CAD $639,500). Vancouver's composite benchmark was about CAD $1,100,700, down roughly 6.2% (apartment benchmark near CAD $697,800, down about 7.9%). So the headline national average can look healthy while the two largest markets are clearly down from a year ago.

Our own listing read for this report is honest about its limits. We could not collect a trustworthy first-party live-listing sample (count of 0): the main national portal is bot-protected and map-based, and a second portal did not expose prices in readable form. So our read is not our own sample at all. It simply carries the boards' and CREA's published current figures, anchored to the CAD $702,079 national average reported for May 2026. We are not nowcasting a separate number on top of that; with the benchmark essentially flat month to month, the most honest read for late June 2026 is the same published average, still about 4% below a year ago.

The defining fact for a Canadian seller is who pays the agent. By custom the seller pays the entire real estate commission, and that single amount is then split between the listing agent and the buyer's agent. The buyer usually pays no commission directly. So you, the seller, effectively fund both sides of the table, which is exactly why selling owner-direct can save the most.

Commission typically runs 3% to 5% of the sale price in total, often nearer 5% in British Columbia and around 3.5% to 4% in Ontario under tiered structures. On a CAD $700,000 home that is roughly CAD $21,000 to $35,000, and then sales tax is added on top of the commission and paid by the seller: 5% GST in places like BC and Alberta, or 13% HST in Ontario. Add legal or notary fees of about CAD $1,000 to $1,600, plus any mortgage discharge or prepayment charges. All in, total seller closing costs work out to roughly 3% to 6% of the sale price, the bulk of it commission.

One cost you do not pay as a seller is land transfer tax. That is a buyer expense in every province (with a second municipal layer in Toronto, and a tiered provincial tax in BC), so it does not factor into your decision about whether to use an agent.

Selling for sale by owner is fully legal in every Canadian province and territory. Homeowners have the clear right to market and sell their own property directly, handle their own showings, and negotiate their own offers. Flat-fee services also exist that can place a private listing on the national MLS system alongside agent listings, which removes the old disadvantage of being invisible to buyers searching the main portal. For a free owner-direct listing, Anyone.com charges neither a listing fee nor a commission.

It remains a minority channel, but an established one. Owners who sell privately are usually doing it to keep the commission, commonly CAD $10,000 to $25,000 or more on a typical home, and on a CAD $700,000 sale closer to CAD $22,000 to $40,000 once the commission and its sales tax are counted. A flat-fee listing typically costs under CAD $1,000, so the math heavily favors trying it yourself if you are willing to do the work.

The honest trade is effort and expertise. Selling yourself means you own the pricing decision (lean on the benchmark, not the headline average), the photography and marketing, the showings, the disclosures and paperwork, and the back-and-forth on offers. In a market that is tightening rather than collapsing, a well-priced private listing is realistic, but plan to put in the hours an agent would otherwise bill you for.