Quebec City: First Quarterly Price Decline in Over 3 Years (July 2026)

On July 14, 2026, Royal LePage reported that the Quebec City region had just posted its first quarterly price decline in more than three years. After an uninterrupted upcycle since 2022, this is the first quarter to end lower than it started. Montreal is not on the same path, where prices were still rising in June. For the local backdrop, see our overview of the Quebec City real estate market in 2026. Here is what the turn actually changes.

What was actually announced

The signal is a quarter-over-quarter move: prices in the Quebec City region fell from one quarter to the next for the first time in over three years. That is not the same as an annual decline. Over twelve months, the Quebec City market remains above its 2025 level. What changed is the slope of the most recent stretch, and the end of a long run of positive quarters. Royal LePage also expects a slowdown heading into the late-summer elections, with uncertainty pushing some buyers to postpone.

One methodological note matters here: an aggregate price weighted by property type and a median calculated on a single month of transactions do not measure the same thing. Two barometers can diverge on the same market without either being wrong. That is exactly what makes this quarter interesting: the change of sign shows up first in the finer indicators.

Why Quebec City turned before Montreal

The Quebec City region went through one of the province's fastest catch-up runs since 2022: prices starting well below Montreal, inventory falling to historic lows, and local demand supported by a solid job market. When a climb is both fast and long, it eventually meets the local affordability wall, because regional incomes do not rise at the pace of regional prices. The down quarter is the symptom of that collision.

Montreal is on a different clock. In June 2026, the metropolitan area recorded 4,012 sales (-8% year over year) but a median single-family home up at $649,000 (+4%), a condo at $435,000 (+2%) and a plex at $880,000 (+6%). Volume has been cooling there for months while prices hold, the classic profile of a market that rebalances through quantities before it does so through prices.

Financing conditions are pulling the other way

The Quebec City slowdown is happening in a fairly friendly financing environment. The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026, a sixth consecutive hold, with the next announcement set for September 2, 2026. On the fixed side, the lowest 5-year fixed rate quoted in Montreal stood at 4.09% on July 23, 2026. In other words, this is not a rate shock slowing the region down: it is an affordability ceiling reached after three years of gains.

That distinction matters for what comes next. A slowdown caused by rising rates reverses when rates fall. A slowdown caused by prices outrunning local purchasing power corrects instead through a stretch of flat prices while incomes catch up. The second path is slower, but also far less brutal.

For the Quebec City buyer

A down quarter hands some negotiating power back to you. Three concrete reflexes. First, get pre-approved now: with a 5-year fixed near 4.09%, a 90 to 120 day rate hold is worth having. Second, negotiate against precise comparables: in a turning market, a property still listed at spring pricing is a negotiable property. Third, watch days on market: a listing well past its area's median selling time belongs to a seller who has already started revising expectations.

For the Quebec City seller

The costliest mistake would be listing at the neighbourhood's last record price. In a market that has just posted its first quarterly decline in three years, an over-optimistic price does not fix itself: it stalls, piles up days on market, then absorbs two or three successive cuts that land below what a fair price would have secured on day one. The right benchmark is not what your neighbour got in April, but what comparable properties have actually closed at over the last eight weeks.

Then there is timing. If late-summer election uncertainty does push part of the buyer pool to wait, the August window keeps one advantage: fewer competing listings than in September, and buyers who are still active, often driven by a fixed occupancy date.