Brady Layton, BComm, CFP

Fri, 02/15/2013 – 09:00
Ottawa, ON, February 15, 2013 – According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales activity edged up on a month-over-month basis in January 2013. National sales activity has held fairly steady after gearing down last August in the wake of tightened mortgage lending rules.

Highlights:

•National home sales rose 1.3% from December to January.
•Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 5.2% under levels in January 2012.
•The number of newly listed homes rose 1.6% from December to January.
•The Canadian housing market remains firmly in balanced territory.
•National average sale price was up 2% year-over-year in January.
•The MLS® HPI rose 3.1% in January, the smallest gain since April 2011.
The number of home sales processed through the MLS® Systems of real estate Boards and Associations and other cooperative listing systems in Canada edged up 1.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis in January 2013. This marks the fifth month in a row that national sales activity has shown little change from levels in the previous month.

Home sales picked up in about half of all local markets in January from the previous month, including some of Canada’s most active. Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver posted monthly sales increases of 5.6 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively, while sales in Edmonton climbed by nearly 10 per cent on the month. Activity gains there were partially offset by softer sales in Ottawa, the Fraser Valley, Montreal, Regina, London and St. Thomas, and Calgary.

“There is little new to report about national sales activity, which continues to hold fairly steady at the lower levels first reached when mortgage rules were tightened in mid-2012,” said CREA President Wayne Moen. “That said, things are becoming more interesting among local markets, with improving sales in Vancouver and Toronto likely to come as something of a surprise to some. As always, all real estate is local, so buyers and sellers should speak to their REALTOR® to understand how the housing market is shaping up where they live or are considering to live.”

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity came in 5.2 per cent below levels reported in January 2012. About two-thirds of local markets posted year-over-year declines in sales activity in January. Notable exceptions include Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Windsor-Essex, and Guelph.

“Year-over-year declines in activity have received attention lately, and understandably so since they’re more exciting compared to the fairly steady month-over-month trend for national sales following changes made last year to mortgage regulations and lending guidelines,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “If national sales activity remains stable near the levels we’ve been seeing since last August, then year-over-year comparisons will begin fading after the crucial spring buying season. Until then, the focus may remain on how sales were stronger in the first half of last year compared to lower but stable national activity since then.”

The number of newly listed homes rose 1.6 per cent month-over-month in January, their first monthly increase since last September.

New listings rose in a number of Canada’s most active markets, led by Greater Toronto. The monthly increase there reversed a decline of similar magnitude one month earlier. New listings also rose in Greater Vancouver, Montreal, the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island, which also marked a reversal in a declining trend for new listings in the final months of 2012.

With sales and new listings both having edged higher, the national sales-to-new listings ratio was little changed at 50.3 per cent in January compared to 50.4 per cent in December. Its reading has held fairly steady around this level for the past six months. Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, about two-thirds of all local markets were in balanced market territory in January.

The number of months of inventory is another important measure of balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and it too was little changed in January.

Nationally, there were 6.6 months of inventory at the end of January 2013, down slightly from 6.7 months reported at the end of December. The number of months of inventory nationally has held between 6.5 and 6.7 months since August last year.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in January 2013 was $354,754, representing an increase of two per cent from January 2012. There were fewer sales compared to year-ago levels in relatively pricey Greater Vancouver, which continues to exert a strong gravitational pull on the national average sale price. Excluding Greater Vancouver from the national average price calculation yields a year-over-year increase of 3.3 per cent.

Unlike average price, the MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) is not affected by changes in the mix of sales, so it provides the best gauge of Canadian home price trends.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® HPI rose 3.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis in January. This marks the ninth time in as many months that the year-over-year gain shrank and the slowest rate of increase since April 2011.

Year-over-year price gains decelerated for one-storey single family homes (+4.4 per cent) and two-storey single family homes (+3.6 per cent). By contrast, year-over-year growth held steady for apartment units (+1.2 per cent), and picked up in the townhouse/row segment (+2.2 per cent).

The MLS® HPI rose fastest in Regina (+8.8% year-over-year), although the increase was the smallest since December 2011. Price growth also moderated in Greater Toronto (+3.8% year-over-year) and in Greater Montreal (+2.6% year-over-year).

By contrast, the MLS® HPI saw year-on-year growth accelerate in Calgary (+8.0%) and the Fraser Valley (+0.7%). In Greater Vancouver, the MLS® HPI posted a 2.8 per cent year-over-year decline in January.

– 30 –

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this news release combines both major market and national MLS® sales information from the previous month.

CREA cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, but does not indicate actual prices in centres comprised of widely divergent neighborhoods or account for price differential between geographic areas. Statistical information contained in this report includes all housing types.

MLS® is a co-operative marketing system used only by Canada’s real estate Boards to ensure maximum exposure of properties listed for sale.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is one of Canada’s largest single-industry trade associations, representing more than 106,000 REALTORS® working through more than 100 real estate Boards and Associations.

Further information can be found at http://crea.ca/statistics.

It’s the first choice you have to make when you decide to move and one that just might define the state of the housing market.

Do you start the process by selling or buying? Buy something and the clock starts ticking on selling your current home because you likely need that money to close the house you just purchased. In markets where sales are plummeting that could be a scary proposition.

So you sell first. But what do you do if you can’t find something you like in the neighbourhood you want. Remember, your kids need to go to that local school and be in the district. Are you prepared to rent for awhile?

People in the industry say the tradition historically has been to sell your home and then start shopping for the new one. But in this housing market, with multiple offers the norm and time on the market dropping in many cities, the process reversed and people starting buying, knowing their home would sell with ease.

Could the tide be turning in another sign of a slowdown for housing?

There are drawbacks to both selling first or buying first but the decision is very much based on your view of the market.

Contractor Paul Donadio, own of Terracon Inc., is facing that decision and the 37-year-old married Toronto homeowner has some trepidation about the market in Canada’s largest city.

“I’m going to sell my house first,” says Mr. Donadio. “What if I don’t hit my numbers? I could be stuck with two houses and how do you pay for it all?”

One option is to demand a closing date on your purchase a little further out, increasing your odds of selling. At the end of the day, you might need an escape clause and Mr. Donadio has one in his income property he’s prepared to move into should he have trouble buying. Renting is an option, but that market can be tight too.
“You have to live somewhere,” says Mr. Donadio. “You don’t want to end up buying the wrong house. I want to buy a house that I can fix up. Selling is more stressful than buying.”

His real estate agent David Batori says he’s telling his clients to sell first because he believes more listings will come to market in the spring. But he points out that, for a young family, selling first comes with the risk of not finding something in the right neighborhood.

“If you are too picky, you’re in trouble,” said Mr. Batori, who adds if you can carry two properties you should buy the home that is perfect for you with that long closing date.

You are going to need a lot of capital to pull that off because bridge financing at the banks is difficult to obtain without a buyer commitment for your existing home. The banks will provide bridge financing about two percentage points above prime if the closing date for the sale of your home comes after your purchase date, but you have to have a committed buyer.

Ultimately, if you buy first you can reduce the price of the home you are selling to move it.

Forget about trying to walk away from your purchase though, you’ve made a commitment to buy and left a deposit. “You can’t just walk away, you’ll be sued, you are in breach of contract,” says Mr. Batori, adding he has only seen someone try to walk away because of a death.

You can try to buy a home with a condition that says the purchase is subject to the sale of your existing home but you are going up against people with no conditions.

“Sellers will laugh at you, “ says Mr. Batori, adding before anybody agrees to that type of offer they’ll have an escape clause in case a firm bid comes in. That clause might give you a right of first refusal but you’ll have to come back with a clean offer with no conditions.

Farhaneh Haque, director of mortgage advice and real estate-secured lending at Toronto-Dominion Bank, cautions against buying without having a firm seller for your existing home.

“You can have the equity for two properties but you also need to have the income to carry both properties,” said Ms. Haque, adding the bank probably won’t extend credit to you for two homes without a high enough income. “It would put you in a situation that is uncomfortable and maybe not even affordable. Do you want to sell a property because you are desperate?”

Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said any shift in the trend to buy or sell first will depend on the city because some cities are still sellers’ markets.

“In a sellers’ market you can [buy first],” said Mr. Porter. “In most major cities, we are shifting. Personally, I would sell first.”

Ultimately, it comes down to your view of the market. You want to buy first, you have to be pretty confident you can sell. Are you?

OTTAWA — While the Bank of Canada acknowledges the economic outlook here and elsewhere “is slightly weaker” than thought, policymakers are also offering up some hope for the near future.

In a nutshell, Canada’s economy is growing at a slower pace than expected — although a pickup is likely later this year —and inflation remains weak at near recession levels, for now, while consumer debt and the housing market appear to be stabilizing, if not cooling. At the same time, the global outlook has also slowed, while fiscal and debt concerns in the United States and Europe have dissipated slightly.

The bottom line for Canada: Interest rates aren’t going anywhere soon.

Related

On Wednesday, for the first time, policymakers combined their regular-rate decision announcement with the bank’s Monetary Policy Report, a closely-watched quarterly reading on domestic and global factors affecting the economy.

As expected, the Bank of Canada kept a lid on borrowing costs, with its trendsetting overnight rate — the main instrument used to guide inflation toward the bank’s 2% target — remaining at a near-record low 1%, unchanged since September 2010 and now the longest dormant stretch since the early 1950s.

The only wrinkle in its usually pact statement accompanying a rate announcement was to highlight “the more muted inflation outlook and the beginning of a more constructive evolution of imbalances in the household sector,” adding that “the timing of any such withdrawal is less imminent than previously anticipated.”

That represent presents a slightly more dovish view of current monetary policy than previously. Given the still-hesitant outlook for Canada and other countries, most forecasters now see little chance the bank can begin raising rates again until late this year or early 2014.

By the numbers, the Bank of Canada on Wednesday pegged global economic growth slowed in 2012 to 3% from 3.9% the previous year. In 2013, that growth will slow to 2.9%, before picking up next year at a rate of 3.5%.

For Canada, growth will be limited to about 2% this year, down from the bank’s October forecast of 2.4%, following estimated growth of 1.9% in 2012, which is below the previous outlook of 2.3%. The bank is calling for a 2.7% advance in 2014, with full economic capacity kicking in in the second half of next year, later than previously thought.

“External demand for Canada’s manufacturing exports remain quite modest relative to its pre-recession level, largely because of the still-low level of activity in the U.S. housing sector,” the bank said.

As for the U.S. economy overall, the bank’s outlook is for growth of 2.1% this year and 3.1% in 2014. “The economic expansion in the United States is continuing at a gradual pace, restrained by ongoing public and private deleveraging, global weakness and uncertainty related to fiscal negotiations.”

The eurozone will likely remain in negative growth this year, down 0.3%, after a contraction of 0.4% in 2012. However, the currency region is forecast to post a positive performance in 2014, with growth of 0.8%

“The economic expansion in the United States is continuing at a gradual pace, restrained by ongoing public and private deleveraging, global weakness and, more recently, by uncertainty related to fiscal negotiations,” the bank said.

“Europe remains in recession, and recent indicators point to a somewhat more protracted downturn than expected in October,” it said. “While growth in China is improving, economic activity has been slowing further in some other major emerging economies.

Still, those estimates assume the eurozone debt crisis “will remain contained and that a severe tightening of U.S. fiscal policy will be avoided,” the bank said. “Overall, recent developments support these assumptions.”

Also in its report, the bank said near-historic low lending rates has slowed the growth in household credit to 5.5% last year to slightly more than 3% in the first quarter of 2013.

“This is the lowest rate of growth since 1999, and reflects a slowdown in the growth of both residential mortgage and consumer credit,” it said. “Even with the recent slowing, household credit still grew slightly faster than disposable income in the third quarter.”

The latest reading by the bank puts the ratio of household debt to income at 165%.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney — who steps down on June 1 to take the top position at the Bank of England — will hold a news conference later on Wednesday to provide more insight into the bank’s most recent domestic and global outlooks.

© Copyright (c) National Post

CALGARY — Calgary was the only major Canadian market to see a year-over-year rise in MLS residential sales in December as the national market plunged and the city finished 2012 with the best annual sales growth in the country, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

In releasing a report Tuesday, the association’s data indicated Calgary MLS sales in December of 1,343 were up 7.2 per cent from December 2011 while Canada saw a decline of 17.4 per cent to 20,538 sales.

The average sale price in Calgary in December rose by 6.9 per cent from last year to $419,811 while Canada’s average jumped by 1.6 per cent to $352,787.

On an annual basis, Calgary sales of 26,634 were up 18.6 per cent year-over-year while they fell by 1.1 per cent throughout the country to 453,372.

The average annual sale price in Calgary rose by 2.3 per cent to $412,315 in 2012. It was up by 0.3 per cent in Canada to $363,740.

“Calgary bucked the national trend in 2012 as the market began to come alive, while others began to enter a long sleep. This occurred because of two main influences,” said Don Campbell, senior analyst and founding partner of the Real Estate Investment Network. “Over the previous three years, Calgary had not over-performed its underlying economic fundamentals like many other major markets across the country, especially Toronto and Vancouver. A lack of new housing being poured into the market also helped to keep the average sale price in check.

“Population growth in Alberta neared a record high in 2012 as many moved here to take advantage of the job growth. This expansion of the number of citizens who call Calgary home, whether temporarily or permanently, put upward pressure on the rental market in the city. This increase in (rents) pushed many into the purchase market and therefore began the upward demand on the home-purchase market. This trend will continue, and inevitably get stronger, in 2013.”

Calgary’s market is showing no signs of letting up in January. According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, month-to-date from January 1-14, there have been 375 MLS sales in the city, up 9.97 per cent from the same period last year while the average sale price has jumped by 11.75 per cent to $428,063.

In December, sales in Alberta fell by 1.9 per cent to 2,855 transactions and the average sale price went up by 4.8 per cent to $363,340. Over the year, sales in Alberta in 2012 rose by 12.3 per cent, the highest of any province, and the average sale price increased by 2.8 per cent to $363,208.

CREA’s Home Price Index in December, of seven major Canadian markets, saw the average benchmark price increase by 3.32 per cent in Canada. Regina led the country with 10.53 per cent growth followed by Calgary at 7.37 per cent.

“Similar to what we saw in September, December sales had fewer business days compared to the same month last year and most other years,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist, about the national picture. “It factored into December’s year-over-year decline in sales activity.”

But he also said that “successive rounds of tightening mortgage regulations have kept the housing market in check during what has become an extended low interest rate environment.”

Sonya Gulati, senior economist with TD Economics, described 2012 as a lacklustre year for the Canadian housing market.

“With the whopping 17.4 per cent year-over-year change in sales seen in December, we suspect that the impacts from the mortgage rule tightening in July are now fully priced in,” she said. “We expect the Canadian housing market to stabilize at current levels over the next few months. When looking at previous mortgage rule tightening episodes, the housing market impacts have been temporary in nature. There is no reason to think that this time will be any different.”

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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With RRSP season upon us, some financial advisors have some words of caution when it comes to real estate.

Don’t count on your home to bankroll your retirement.

Laura Parsons, a mortgage expert with the Bank of Montreal, says many of her clients tend to think of real estate as a sure bet in retirement.

The bank recently put out a report with advice on saving for your golden years.

“There’s a lot more weight on the value of our homes, so a lot of in fact, 41 per cent are considering that the equity on their home is really going to be the supplement for their retirement. So, that’s a little bit concerning,” Parsons said.

Calgary financial planner Tim Faunt agrees it’s a dangerous assumption considering the impact retiring baby boomers could have on the real estate market.

“There’s all of these folks looking to downsize and at the same time, there isn’t another group of similar size coming up through the demography to purchase those properties — well then, those folks have a problem,” Faunt explained.

The housing market in Calgary may be in good shape now, but Faunt says it’s always wise to diversify.

“They need to be developing their own retirement savings and not be counting on the vagaries of the real estate market to provide for their retirement income.”

CALGARY — A cooling in house prices in some parts of Canada may not be all bad news for the country’s economy as cheaper real estate may free up retail spending power for prospective first-time home buyers, finds a new report from CIBC World Markets.

The report, released Thursday, said that while the evident slowing in Canadian home sales will take a bite out of domestic economic growth by reducing new housing starts and related sales of furniture and appliances, a gradual retreat in prices may be beneficial for parts of the economy and for some Canadians.

“For one, a retreat today could be the preferred alternative to a harder landing from even higher prices down the road,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC. “Less understood is that cheaper home prices could bring winners as well as losers across the economy.

“What of the young newlyweds scraping by on mac and cheese to save for their first home? A slip in prices could ease that task, freeing up spending power in the process.”

Shenfeld said increases in Calgary house prices have trailed the Canadian average over the past five years, including a near-15 per cent dip in 2008, yet retail spending in the city has outperformed the national average.

According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, month-to-date from November 1-28, total MLS sales in the city of 1,346 are up 6.49 per cent compared with the same period last year while the average sale price has risen by 5.16 per cent to $434,839.

The latest Statistics Canada data indicated Alberta led the country in retail sales growth in September with a 8.5 per cent year-over-year hike to close to $5.9 billion in sales. Nationally, annual sales growth was 1.8 per cent to $39.1 billion.

The following are the average MLS sale prices for single-family homes in Calgary for the past few years: 2012 (year-to-date), $480,296; 2011, $466,506; 2010, $461,420; 2009, $442,826; 2008, $460,057; 2007, $471,852; 2006, $400,081; 2005, $287,125; and 2004, $251,558.

“British Columbia house prices led on the way up and now down,” said Shenfeld. “But affordability issues have been a drag on B.C. growth; the rapid run-up in prices was one factor turning the province from a beneficiary of in-migration to a net source of emigration. Dreams of retiring in B.C., and taking one’s spending money to that province, might be back in vogue if relative prices of housing are better in line with other provinces.”

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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Canadian housing prices will fall 10% over the next several years and homebuilding will slow sharply in 2013, but the country’s recent property boom is not expected to end in a U.S.-style collapse, according to a Reuters poll.

The survey of 20 forecasters published on Friday showed the majority believe the Canadian government has done enough to rein in runaway prices, preventing the type of crash that has devastated the U.S. market for years.

“This isn’t a sharp correction, this isn’t a U.S.-style correction, it’s just simply an unwinding of the excess valuation that was created by artificially low interest rates for a long period of time,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

“I would emphasize that while a 10 % correction sounds scary, in actual fact, this would be a healthy outcome.”

U.S. house prices crashed as a mortgage crisis unraveled in 2008, triggering a financial crisis and leaving a trail of foreclosures, negative equity and financial hardship for millions of people. Housing prices in the U.S. have only begun to rise again this year.

On a national basis, Canadian house prices are expected to drop 10% over the next several years, and housing starts will fall more than 17% to 184,000 units by mid-2013, according to median results of the poll, which was conducted over the last week.

House prices have already begun to cool in some areas but nationally remain 23% higher than their trough in March 2009, according to a Canadian Real Estate Association index.

Respondents in the Reuters poll said house prices will rise 2.0% in 2012 and fall 0.1% in 2013, according to the median of 18 forecasts, putting most of the losses at least two years away.

Median forecasts had Toronto prices rising 5.1% in 2012 and falling 1.3% in 2013. But respondents saw an eventual 5% fall from current levels. Vancouver prices were forecast to fall 2.7% in 2012 and 3.8% in 2013, with an eventual decline of 12.5%.

As sales decline and prices fall, homebuilders will ratchet back on construction starts, the poll showed.

Housing starts, which notched a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 222,945 units in the third quarter, will decline to 200,500 in the fourth quarter, 186,900 in the first quarter of 2013, and 184,000 in the second quarter of next year.

BITE OUT OF GROWTH

That 17.5% drop in new homebuilding will take a bite out of Canada’s economic growth, fueled by the housing sector, consumer spending and government stimulus since growth slowed in 2009. But a strengthening global economy should help pick up the slack, Alexander said.

Not everyone is as sanguine. While economists at Canada’s major banks have consistently predicted a softening in prices and a slowing in housing starts, some independent analysts see a very hard landing ahead.

“The housing market is something to be very worried about,” said David Madani, Canada economist at consultancy Capital Economics in Toronto.

Madani, whose forecasts are included in the Reuters poll, has consistently predicted a 25% drop in prices and a plunge in housing starts to just 150,000 next year as builders grapple with too many homes and falling demand.

“The one symptom that housing bubbles always have in common is the over building, and I feel the banks play this down a bit,” said Madani, pointing to recent housing starts well above the 175,000 to 185,000 pace economists say is needed to keep up with population growth.

“We’ve been building above 200,0000 for several years. And we know we’ve been building above demographic requirements because the evidence is in the inventory data – it’s high, it’s not low,” said Madani.

“The excesses are there, it’s plain and clear to see.”

Still, all 15 respondents who answered an additional question said they believe the Canadian government has done enough to slow the housing market and prevent a U.S.-style crash, as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has argued.

RULE CHANGES HURT

Mindful of the U.S. boom and bust, the federal government tightened mortgage lending rules four times in the last four years to make it harder for home buyers to take on too much debt in their quest for a home.

The rule changes gradually shorted the maximum mortgage length from 40 years to 25 and also put limits on how much homeowners could borrow against their house, among other measures.

While interest rates are not expected to rise until mid-2013, the stiffer lending rules and government warnings about the high debt loads of Canadian households have helped cool the ardor of home buyers, with the hottest markets, including Vancouver and Toronto, already feeling a chill.

Sales of existing homes were down 15.1% in September from a year earlier, and were 6.5% lower in the third quarter from the previous three months, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Prices, which lag sales, have started to come down as well. Prices for existing homes dipped 0.4% in September from August, according the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, but remain 3.6% higher than a year earlier.

Prices of new homes rose 0.2% in the month, the 18th straight monthly gain, and were up 2.4% on the year, according to Statistics Canada.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/09/canada-home-prices-seen-falling-but-not-crashing

CALGARY — Calgary home prices rose slightly in August, according to the latest Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index, which tracks repeat home sales in the country.

Prices in Calgary were up 0.4 per cent from the previous month and 0.8 per cent year-over-year, said the report released on Wednesday. Nationally, prices rose 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis and by 4.1 per cent on an annual basis.

The index is estimated by tracking observed or registered home prices over time using data collected from public land registries. All dwellings that have been sold at least twice are considered in the calculation of the index.

This year’s August increase of just 0.2 per cent nationally was the smallest August increase in 12 years and in three of the 11 metropolitan markets surveyed, prices were down from the month before: Vancouver (1.2 per cent), Victoria (0.7 per cent) and Quebec City (0.6 per cent).

“Since monthly changes are subject to seasonal factors, the 12-month change is revealing. In August the composite index was up 4.1 per cent from a year earlier, for a ninth consecutive month of deceleration in 12-month inflation,” said the report. “However, the only market in which 12-month inflation has followed the national composite in decelerating for nine straight months is Vancouver.”

Prices were down from a year earlier in Vancouver by 0.3 per cent.

“The decade-long run-up in home prices, which has seen prices rise in some cities by over 150 per cent, is now going into reverse, with national home prices falling in August for the first time in more than two years,” said David Madani, Canada Economist for Capital Economics. “While prices might tread water for a few more months, the slump in home sales suggests that there is little chance of the ‘soft landing’ predicted by others. We expect house prices to decline by 25 per cent over the next few years.”

He said “a potentially severe housing correction has already begun in Vancouver, Canada’s most extremely overvalued housing market.

“Although housing valuations are not quite as rich elsewhere in the country, most regions have seen prices rise too sharply over the past decade and presumably we can expect to see corrections in these markets too. This includes Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax,” said Madani.”Canada’s housing market has been booming for several years but, like all housing bubbles, they never last. The support rising housing valuations has provided to household spending in the past is now likely to work out in reverse over the next few years.”

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

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