Weakness in the Ontario and B.C. housing markets is cited as the reason the Canadian Real Estate Association is lowering its forecast for 2023.

CREA now expects around 449,614 residential properties to be sold – a 9.8% drop from last year.

That compares with July expectations for a 6.8% decline in sales.

Meanwhile, the national average price of a home is projected to slip 3.3% this year to $680,686.

In the summer it was forecast to dip just 0.2%.

The updated outlook comes as the association reported sales last month were up 1.9% compared with September ’22.

Month-to-month sales were down by that much.

The actual national average home price was $655,507 – up 2.5% from September of last year.