SNLR

The sales to new listings ratio (SNLR) is the number of homes sold in a period divided by the number newly listed in that same period, expressed as a percentage. It is the fastest single read on market balance: a measure of whether demand is absorbing supply as it arrives, or supply is stacking up faster than buyers take it. When a board report or a news story declares a “seller’s market,” this ratio is usually the evidence.

How to read the number

The conventional bands, used by CREA and quoted across Canadian boards: below about 40% suggests a buyer’s market, 40% to 60% a balanced one, and above 60% a seller’s market. The intuition is mechanical — at 50%, one home sells for every two that come up for sale; at 75%, three of every four new listings are being matched by a sale, and buyers start competing for what’s left. Because monthly counts are noisy, serious readings smooth the ratio over several months or a trailing year rather than reacting to a single print.

What it hides

SNLR is a flow measure — it compares this period’s sales to this period’s listings and says nothing about the inventory already sitting on the market. A market can post a healthy-looking ratio while months of accumulated supply keep prices flat, which is why analysts read it beside months of inventory and days on market: flow, stock, and speed. It’s also city-wide by default, and averages conceal the reality that detached homes in one pocket and condos in another can sit in entirely different markets in the same month.

Where you’ll meet it

TRREB’s monthly statistics, CREA’s national releases, and the market commentary that quotes them all lean on SNLR. On BrokerFold sites, the ratio is computed from board data over a trailing twelve months and presented inside the market report panels with the standard bands — so the number a visitor sees on an agent’s site is derived the same way the industry derives it, updated as sales close rather than transcribed by hand from a PDF.