Buyer's, seller's or balanced? What months of inventory tells you about a housing market
“Is it a buyer's market or a seller's market?" is one of the first questions people ask before they buy or sell. Headlines usually answer it with prices. A better answer comes from a number most people never look at: months of inventory.
What is months of inventory (MoI)?
Months of inventory is how long it would take to sell every home now listed, if sales carried on at this month's pace and no new listings came on.
Want the number for your own area? Ask the Properti Edge AI Advisor for months of inventory by area and property type, with the month stated.
The sum is simple: active listings divided by the month's sales.
Take detached houses across the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) area in October 2026. There were 11,721 active listings and 2,693 sales. 11,721 divided by 2,693 is 4.4 months of inventory (TRREB Market Watch, October 2026).
Some boards call it months of supply. It's the same idea.
What counts as a buyer's, seller's or balanced market?
Properti Edge uses these lines, the same ones in its market risk methodology:
Under 4 months: a seller's market. Homes sell quickly, buyers compete, and sellers have more say on price and conditions.
4 to 6 months: a balanced market. Neither side has a clear edge.
Over 6 months: a buyer's market. Buyers have choice and time, and more room to negotiate.
These are rules of thumb, not laws, and some boards use their own. More on that below.
What did October 2026 look like?
Calgary detached houses: 3.3 months, a seller's market (Calgary Real Estate Board, October 2026).
Toronto detached houses: 4.4 months, balanced (TRREB Market Watch, October 2026, calculated by Properti Edge).
Calgary apartments: 5.3 months, balanced but close to the buyer's line (Calgary Real Estate Board, October 2026).
Toronto condo apartments: 5.8 months, balanced (TRREB Market Watch, October 2026, calculated by Properti Edge).
Vancouver apartments: about 7.4 months, a buyer's market (Greater Vancouver REALTORS®, October 2026, calculated by Properti Edge).
Vancouver detached houses: about 8.6 months, a buyer's market (Greater Vancouver REALTORS®, October 2026, calculated by Properti Edge)
Three cities, three different answers. In Calgary, the answer even depends on what you're buying: detached houses favour sellers while apartments are edging toward buyers. "The market" is rarely one market.
The full October 2026 city reports: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary.
Why does the direction matter as much as the level?
One month is a snapshot. The more useful question is which way the number is moving, so compare it with the same month a year earlier.
In Calgary, months of supply for detached houses rose from 2.89 in October 2025 to 3.34 in October 2026. For apartments it rose from 4.59 to 5.28 (Calgary Real Estate Board, October 2026). Both moved 15% to 16% toward buyers in a year, because sales fell faster than listings.
Toronto detached houses went the other way, from 4.5 to 4.4, as fewer sellers listed (TRREB Market Watch, October 2026, calculated by Properti Edge).
The Properti Edge market risk score treats this change over a year as a signal in its own right. In the back-testing behind the score, it was the best single predictor of the factors tested.
Why do the boards' numbers sometimes look different?
The Calgary Real Estate Board publishes months of supply by property type.
TRREB publishes active listings and sales, and we divide one by the other. TRREB also prints a smoothed trend version, which was 4.6 months for all property types in October 2026.
Greater Vancouver REALTORS® publishes a sales-to-active-listings ratio instead: the month's sales as a share of active listings. It's months of inventory turned upside down. A ratio of 11.6%, the October figure for detached houses, works out to about 8.6 months (1 divided by 0.116).
Greater Vancouver REALTORS® says prices tend to come under downward pressure when the ratio stays below 12% for a sustained period, and upward pressure when it stays above 20% (October 2026 release). In months, that's above about 8.3 months and below 5 months.
So the Vancouver board's middle ground, roughly 5 to 8.3 months, is wider than the 4 to 6 month rule of thumb. Same data, different yardstick. Always check which one you're reading.
Why not look at the sales-to-new-listings ratio?
Many market reports use a different measure: the sales-to-new-listings ratio. It compares the month's sales with the number of homes newly listed that month. It sounds similar, but it rests on a number that isn't reliable: new listings.
The problem is relisting, sometimes called recycled listings. An agent takes a home off the market and lists it again as new. It gets fresh eyes on the home, lets the price come down without showing a price cut, and makes a stale listing look new. Each time, the same home counts as a new listing again.
It isn't the same everywhere. We tracked how many homes for sale came off the market each month without selling, using the boards' own figures:
Toronto detached houses: on average, 57% of the previous month's listings came off without a sale in 2022, and 43% in 2024 (TRREB).
Calgary detached houses: about 22% in 2022 and 23% in 2024 (Calgary Real Estate Board).
Vancouver detached houses: about 21% in 2022 and 19% in 2024 (Greater Vancouver REALTORS®).
Not every one of those homes was relisted. Some sellers decide to wait, or change agents. But if it were only sellers changing their plans, you'd expect similar numbers in every city. Toronto's is about double, which points to agent behaviour: in the Toronto area, relisting is common practice.
It also changes with the market. In March 2022, the Bank of Canada started raising rates and Toronto sales fell sharply. That month, about 90% of the previous month's Toronto detached listings came off the market without selling, as agents relisted to get fresh eyes on homes. Once buyers and sellers got used to the slower market, the share came back down.
So new listings rise and fall with relisting habits, not just with how many people want to sell. That makes the sales-to-new-listings ratio hard to compare from one city to another, or from one year to the next.
Active listings don't have that problem. A home for sale at the end of the month is counted once, however many times it was listed. That's why we look at sales against active listings, and at months of inventory, which is the same number turned upside down.
What can throw the number off?
The season. Fewer homes sell in the winter months, which can push the number up. Compare with the same month last year, not last month.
Small areas. In a neighbourhood with a few dozen sales a month, a handful of deals swings the number. Properti Edge adds a note to any figure based on fewer than 50 sales.
Property type. Houses and condos are often different markets, as Calgary shows.
Price range. A balanced market overall can hide a seller's market for starter homes and a buyer's market at the top end. Board figures are rarely split by price.
What does it mean for you?
If you're buying: in a buyer's market you may have time to compare homes and room to negotiate on price and conditions. In a seller's market, homes go faster, so know your budget at today's rates before you start.
If you're selling: in a buyer's market you're competing with more listings, so price against the homes for sale now, not the ones that sold last year. In a seller's market, you may get more than one offer, but the conditions matter as much as the price.
If you're staying put: months of inventory doesn't change what you owe. It matters on the day you sell, or when a lender values your home.
How can you check your own market?
Find months of inventory for your area and property type, for the latest month.
Compare it with the same month a year ago.
Check how many sales it's based on.
From Properti Edge
Is your area a buyer's or a seller's market?
Ask the AI Advisor about your area and property type. It gives you sales, listings, months of inventory and prices, with the month stated, and notes when a figure rests on fewer than 50 sales.
General information, not regulated advice.
General information, not regulated advice. Speak to a licensed real estate professional or mortgage broker about your situation before acting.
