![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/JPbombales-6953-compressed.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: James Bombales<\/em><\/p>\n After a rough start to the year, the Canadian housing market started to warm up in July, with sales and prices inching up month-over-month. <\/p>\n But while most markets remain in balanced territory, not every city is made equal \u2014 though the GTA has seen signs of recovery, many of BC’s major markets continue to struggle.<\/p>\n With this in mind, Zoocasa has measured the sales-to-new-listings ratio for 26 of Canada’s major housing markets, to determine which fall into buyer or sellers’ territory. A ratio of between 40 to 60 is considered balanced, with reading below and above indicating buyers’ and sellers’ markets, respectively. <\/p>\n\n “Those looking to ascend the property ladder in [cities with a buyers’ market] will encounter fewer competitive hurdles such as bidding wars, as the number of sales are too few to outweigh new inventory,” reads the Zoocasa report. “Sales activity ranges from roughly flat to steep declines, from the -0.8 per cent recorded in the Edmonton real estate market, to the -33.4 per cent drop in BC\u2019s Fraser Valley.”<\/p>\n The report found that the country’s strongest buyers’ markets were Newfoundland and Labrador (35 per cent), Greater Vancouver (43 per cent), Fraser Valley (45 per cent), Edmonton (48 per cent) and Quebec (49 per cent).<\/p>\n “A buyers’ market doesn’t necessarily equal an affordable market,” Zoocasa managing editor Penelope Graham tells Livabl. “When you look at the fact that two of the strongest buyers’ market are in BC, those markets are still quite unaffordable for many buyers, but the new mortgage stress test which came into effect in January is having a greater impact on these areas than in other areas of the country.”<\/p>\n When it comes to sellers’ markets, London and St. Thomas came in first at 78 per cent, followed by Montreal (73 per cent), Ottawa (72 per cent), Windsor-Essex (71 per cent) and Saguenay (70 per cent.) <\/p>\n