Canada’s housing market frenzy was in full force in January. Buyers scooped up virtually every unit they could\u2014even downtown condos. The only thing slowing them down was a lack of supply, especially for single-family homes. A number of potential sellers possibly saw the return of non-essential business lockdowns as a reason to hold off putting properties on the market. But the bigger factor was how quickly buyers gobbled up the units that came up for sale since summer resulting in inventories falling to multi-year or multi-decade lows in some cases. Local real estate boards reported very strong results for January. Home resales increased 17% (Montreal) to 76% (Fraser Valley) from a year ago among Canada’s larger markets. The level of activity was at, or near record levels in the majority of cases. Things got hectic even in Alberta where resales surged more than 40% in both Calgary and Edmonton. Clearly, rock-bottom interest rates, high household savings and changing housing needs energized buyers all over the country in early 2021. Super tight demand-supply conditions for single-family homes continued to drive up prices at accelerating rates. They are likely to stay on this trajectory in the near term. Condo price trends are comparatively weaker\u2014due to plentiful inventories in the downtown areas of Canada’s largest cities. That said, the growing affordability advantage over single-family homes and the start of vaccination distribution (interpreted by some investors as a sign downtown condos will soon regain popularity) have rekindled buyers’ interest in condos over the past couple of months. This could lead to a firming of condo prices later this year. <\/p>\n