Market Analysis
The Real Cost of the Montreal Suburbs
You will be told the suburbs cost less, and the gap between median prices seems to confirm it. Then the tax bill …
In late August, a buyer hears two contradictory things: that sellers in a hurry give in before the fall, and that there is nothing good left to visit. APCIQ’s monthly statistics settle it, provided you look at three precise numbers instead of the median price. Here they are, for Laval and for the Montreal census metropolitan area (CMA).
The best time to buy in Montreal is not read in the median price
Three definitions first, taken as written from APCIQ’s explanatory notes.
New listings: “Number of new brokerage contracts whose signing date falls within the period concerned.” It is a flow, the month’s arrivals.
Active listings: “Number of listings whose status is active on the last day of the month.” It is a stock, a snapshot, not an average.
Average selling time: “Average number of days between the date the brokerage contract is signed and the date of sale.” And the date of sale is the date the promise to purchase is accepted, “which takes effect when all conditions are lifted”.
Two consequences, rarely stated. There is no median selling time in these tables: it is an average, pulled upward by the slowest listings. And since the count starts at the brokerage contract, a property relisted under a new contract starts back at zero, even if it has been online since the winter. On the median price, APCIQ issues its own warning: prices “do not necessarily reflect the average or median value of all properties in a sector”.
Laval’s August 2026 supply, month by month
Here are the first eight months of 2026 in Laval, each line taken from APCIQ’s release for the month concerned. The ratio column is my own calculation: APCIQ does not publish that ratio.
| 2026 month | Sales | New listings | Active listings | Sales / new listings | Single-family time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 191 | 486 | 1,280 | 39% | 59 days |
| February | 343 | 638 | 1,420 | 54% | 38 days |
| March | 476 | 735 | 1,480 | 65% | 38 days |
| April | 430 | 741 | 1,601 | 58% | 29 days |
| May | 435 | 664 | 1,600 | 66% | 26 days |
| June | 420 | 572 | 1,549 | 73% | 36 days |
| July | 307 | 476 | 1,469 | 64% | 27 days |
| August | 255 | 497 | 1,514 | 51% | 40 days |
New listings peak in the spring, not in August. 735 in March and 741 in April, against 497 in August, a third fewer.
Supply does not peak in August either. Active listings in Laval top out at 1,601 in April and 1,600 in May, fall to 1,469 in July, then climb back to 1,514 in August. If you have heard that choice is at its widest at the end of the summer, the data says the opposite.
What changes in August is the pace. 255 sales, the weakest month of 2026 after January, for a supply almost identical to May’s. The average selling time for the Laval single-family home goes from 26 days in May to 40 days in August; for the condominium, from 47 to 63 days, against 58 days in August 2025.
The Montreal CMA tells the same story on a larger scale: 5,874 new listings in August 2026 against 8,574 in March, and 20,128 active listings against 21,073 in May.
Sales to new listings ratio: the calculation for your sector
The ratio between the month’s sales and the month’s new listings says how fast the market absorbs what arrives. In Laval, it falls to 51% in August 2026, its lowest level since January, after 73% in June. In the Montreal CMA, August 2026 gives 2,853 sales for 5,874 new listings, or 49%.
Two limits. The month’s sales do not relate to the month’s listings, and the sale date used is the date conditions are lifted, often weeks after the showing. And the ratio mixes categories. In August 2026, in the Montreal CMA, the condominium counted 9,957 active listings for 1,046 sales, the single-family home 7,753 for 1,498: the condo buyer had close to twice as much choice per completed sale. Do the calculation on your category, not on the total.
Months of inventory: the official measure of market conditions
APCIQ has its own measure of market conditions, and it is none of the numbers above. It defines inventory as “the average of active listings over the last 12 months”, then months of inventory as that inventory divided by the average of sales over the last 12 months. The smoothing is deliberate: “This calculation removes fluctuations due to seasonality.” The thresholds are published too: under 8 months, seller’s market; 8 to 10 months, balanced; over 10 months, buyer’s market.
Its residential barometer for the second quarter of 2026 applies those thresholds to Laval’s single-family market, by price range.
| Price range, Laval single-family | Months of inventory | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Under $310,000 | 1.9 | Seller |
| $310,000 to $470,000 | 2.2 | Seller |
| $470,000 to $780,000 | 2.6 | Seller |
| $780,000 to $930,000 | 4.1 | Seller |
| $930,000 and up | 7.6 | Seller |
No range reaches balance: even the top of the market, at 7.6 months, stays classified as a seller’s market.
The same barometer goes down to the sector. For the condominium in Laval’s Centre-Ville, it gives 10.1 months of inventory in the $530,000 to $630,000 band, classified a buyer’s market, and 8.3 months at $630,000 and up, classified balanced. There is the real answer to “is this a good time”: it does not exist at the scale of a city, only at the scale of a category, a sector and a price band. The six Laval sectors are compared in buying in Laval.
Why July 1 distorts the Quebec calendar
The Tribunal administratif du logement (Quebec’s rental board) puts it plainly: “In Quebec, most residential leases end on June 30, giving rise every year to a large number of moves.” And “a new tenant’s right to occupy the premises begins on the first day of the lease”.
That date catches up with you if you buy a property occupied by a tenant, plex or rented condominium alike. Occupying a rented dwelling yourself is a repossession, and the TAL sets the notice periods: at least 6 months before the end of a lease longer than 6 months, 1 month for a lease of 6 months or less, 6 months before the intended date for a lease of indeterminate term. The tenant has 1 month to reply, and silence counts as refusal. Translated into dates: on a dwelling whose lease ends June 30, 2027, the notice must go out before the end of December 2026.
One protection is added: no repossession is possible in a dwelling occupied for at least 10 years by a person aged 65 or over whose income does not exceed 125% of the eligibility threshold for low rental housing, unless the landlord or the beneficiary is also 65 or over. Have your case validated by a lawyer or by your notary before the offer.
The best time to buy also depends on your guaranteed rate
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is clear about what a preapproval does: it holds an interest rate for 60 to 130 days depending on the lender. It guarantees neither that the loan will be granted, nor the amount, which is a maximum.
That number of days is a calendar constraint just like the season. The Bank of Canada publishes its policy rate announcement dates more than a year in advance: for 2026, it announced eight dates on August 6, 2025, including September 2, October 28 and December 9. A rate held in late August therefore covers at least one announcement, often two, before it expires.
Before comparing months, compare amounts: the affordability calculator gives an order of magnitude. I am not a mortgage broker: for your file, speak to a mortgage broker or to your lender, and read what a preapproval actually guarantees.
Buying at the end of the summer in Montreal: what it changes in the negotiation
What the end of the summer gives, the data says: older listings and a slower market, not a discount. An average of 40 days instead of 26 gives you an argument, nothing more. No official source lets me put a number on the average discount obtained in August rather than in May.
Waiting for the fall does not necessarily narrow the choice. In Laval, new listings went from 504 in August 2025 to 620 in September 2025, then 555 in October and 433 in November, while sales held at 351, 362 and 338. In October 2025, the average time for the Laval single-family home even dropped to 31 days. A 2025 pattern is not a forecast for 2026, but it contradicts the idea that everything stops after Labour Day.
What the month does not change: the negotiating levers. They are in the promise to purchase, the conditions, the deposit and the occupancy date. The winter version of the reasoning is in buying a home in winter in Quebec.
Frequently asked questions
Do prices fall in August in Montreal? Not according to APCIQ’s release for August 2026. The median price of the Montreal CMA single-family home is $650,000 there, up 3% year over year, and that of the condominium $437,250, up 4%. In Laval, the single-family home is at $642,750, up 7% year over year.
How long before a seller drops the price? No rule sets that delay and nobody can promise it to you. The verifiable benchmark is the average selling time for your category: 40 days for the Laval single-family home in August 2026, 63 days for the condominium. Beyond that, the question is why, and the answer is more often the starting price than the season.
Does APCIQ publish figures for my exact sector? Not always. Its tables carry the note “Insufficient number of transactions to produce a reliable statistic” as soon as sales are too few. That is the case for the Laval plex in August 2026: 21 sales, so no median price and no selling time published. We then work on comparables, not on monthly statistics.
Is it better to buy before or after a Bank of Canada announcement? The dates are public in advance, which settles half the question. The direction, nobody knows. The decision gets made with your mortgage broker, on your file.
To go further, read when to list your property in Montreal, which treats the same seasonality from the seller’s side, and reading market data rather than predictions.
Torn between buying now and waiting for the spring? Write to me: we pull the numbers for your category, your sector and your price band, then we decide. Service in French, English and Arabic.
Georges Matar
Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.
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