A latticework of government demand-side policies are seemingly tailor-made to hold the line on unaffordably high housing prices
For a brief, shining moment in the spring of 2022, it appeared that some semblance of sanity was returning to the most unhinged real estate market in the world.
Although the average price of a home in Canada has fallen year-over-year, new data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows prices in most major cities have been rising on a monthly basis since January.
The average price of a home in Canada was $716,083 in April, not seasonally adjusted, according to statistics released by the CREA on Monday. While this represents a decrease of 3.9 per cent compared to the same time last year, it is about $104,000 higher than the average price of a home at the beginning of 2023.
According to the CREA, this increase is due to a rebound in home sales, primarily in regions such as the Greater Toronto Area and Lower Mainland British Columbia.
“Over the last few months, there have been signs that housing markets were going to heat back up this year, so it wasn’t a surprise to see things take
The Central Valley housing market seems to be finding its new normal, as median home sale prices have bounced back by 8.3% in Stanislaus County since the start of the year.
TrendVision reports from April show a changed market since last summer when the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising key interest rates to fight ongoing inflation. Those increases have more than doubled the mortgage rate from around 3% through much of 2020 and 2021 to now about 6.2%.
But rates have dropped from their peak last September of about 7.1%. While the higher rates and subsequent higher monthly payments have priced some potential buyers out of the market, PMZ Real Estate broker Daniel Del Real said the demand remains high.
“Buyers want to buy not on face value, but on monthly payments. That caused the process to slow down and a pull back at the end of last year. But
Home of the Week: 33 Lombard St., No. 4304, Toronto.Michael Peart Photography
Here are The Globe and Mail’s top housing and real estate stories this week, with the lowest mortgage rates available in Canada today, commentary from our mortgage expert and one home worth a look.
If you’re a millennial or member of Gen Z, the biggest financial non-event of the decade is the housing market correction. In his weekly column, Rob Carrick writes about what happens when young adults in this country cannot afford to buy and own homes.
In an expensive housing market, both owners and renters are going to have a hard time saving for retirement. Owners do have a retirement saving advantage in being able to access their equity by downsizing to a cheaper home, but many owners don’t want to. And while
The price of the average home in Vancouver has fallen by more than $100,000 over the last year, but thanks to soaring interest rates, the amount of money needed to afford such a home has risen, according to Ratehub.ca.
In a new study, the online mortgage brokerage and interest rate comparison website calculated the minimum annual income required to buy an average home in cities across Canada in March, and compared that data to the same calculation for March 2022.
“While home prices are down significantly in the majority of the cities we looked at, the income required to purchase a home still remains inflated due to higher mortgage and stress test rates,” said James Laird, the company’s co-CEO, in a news release Monday.
This dynamic is most extreme in Vancouver, where real estate prices have long been disconnected from local wages.
According to Ratehub.ca, the average home price in
