15 January 2019

“Strong activity in December 2017 was caused by homebuyers rushing to buy a property before the implementation of new federal mortgage stress test,” – CREA president Barb Sukkau noted. “The stress test has affected sales differently across all Canadian real estate markets and this trend will go on in 2019”.

Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Rishi Sondhi believes the housing market has “lost some steam” in the second half of 2018.

“The broad decline we can see now proves that growing interest rates and stricter lending rules are affecting markets across the country,” – he said. In his opinion, sales will be still relatively low compared to the recent years in 2019.

Of course, housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver are significantly higher than in all other regions of Canada, that’s why they are pushing the national average numbers higher. In case we exclude those markets from calculations, the average Canadian home price would reach about $375,000.