Canadian Housing

Will a rapid rise in interest rates finally cool down our housing market? We’ll soon find out.

Home resales and new listings both fell by similar extents in March—down 5.4% m/m and 5.5%, respectively, nationwide—keeping inventories scarce.

Some measures (e.g. the foreign buyer ban and anti-flipping tax) are clearly designed to shake things up and effect a change in market direction.

Last month’s first rate hike from the Bank of Canada since 2018 likely had little cooling effect on the market.

Price gains recorded during the pandemic have been nothing short of stunning across Canada, surpassing 30% nationwide and far more in several markets.

Even more sellers will need to list their properties to rebalance Canada’s housing market.

Sellers will play a central role in shaping up this year’s spring season.

Solid demand and a dearth of supply kept conditions steamy in Canada’s major markets as 2022 rolled in.

The ongoing construction boom will bring much needed new supply to the market, helping to ease severe shortages.

Market activity started 2021 with a bang and stayed incredibly strong all year. Canada’s housing market enters 2022 in broadly the same way than it did in 2021: under the scorching heat of supercharged demand running against historically low inventories.

RBC’s aggregate measure for Canada jumped 2.0 percentage points to 47.5%—the worst level in 31 years.

Home resales picked up 0.6% m/m to 651,000 units (seasonally adjusted and annualized) in November nation-wide.