National and Toronto Real Estate Market Update for 2025 The chill in Canada's housing market could be thawing sooner than expected.  Interest rates are dropping.1 Pent-up demand is building.2 Sales are starting to heat up.3 And a potentially electrifying set of mortgage rules just went into effect, making it easier than it 's been in years for first-time buyers with smaller down payments to qualify for a higher priced home.4 As a result, some experts now project that... [read more]

Mid-Year Market Update for 2024: What Buyers and Sellers Need to Know   Once again, the number one story in real estate this summer is mortgage rates. But unlike last year, when a surprise series of rate hikes from the Bank of Canada sent skittish buyers back to the sidelines, all signs now point to the opposite scenario. Instead of market-chilling rate hikes, economists now expect market-quickening rate cuts—possibly starting as soon as this month.1  That means the... [read more]

Real Estate Market Forecast: Opportunities for Home Buyers and Sellers in 2024 Home buyers surprised everyone last spring when they shook off higher borrowing costs and showed up to new home sales in droves. The surge in competition for a still-limited pool of properties helped home prices pop and renewed sellers' confidence in their ability to get top dollar for a home. But experts caution that the 2024 housing market could unfold quite differently, especially if Canada's... [read more]

National Real Estate Market Update for 2023 There’s an old adage in real estate: location, location, location. But ever since the Bank of Canada began its series of inflation-fighting interest rate hikes last year, a new mantra has emerged: mortgage rates, mortgage rates, mortgage rates. Higher rates had the immediate impact of cooling homebuyer affordability and demand. But when the Bank of Canada announced in early March that it would put additional rate changes on hold, the... [read more]

Bank of Canada Increases the Overnight Lending Rate to 0.5% The Bank of Canada today increased its target for the overnight rate to ½ %, with the Bank Rate at ¾ % and the deposit rate at ½ %. The Bank is continuing its reinvestment phase, keeping its overall holdings of Government of Canada bonds on its balance sheet roughly constant until such time as it becomes appropriate to allow the size of its balance sheet to decline. The unprovoked invasion... [read more]