The house Market

HALIFAX - Two years after moving to Halifax from Ireland, Sarah and Nick Moriarty began house hunting.After losing multiple bidding wars, the couple offered $50,000 over the list price on a house - and included a handwritten letter by their seven-year-old daughter who was excited to plant vegetables in the...

U.S. housing starts rebounded sharply in March to the highest since 2006, exceeding forecasts and indicating residential construction is getting back on track after a winter storm-related setback.Residential starts jumped 19.4 per cent last month to a 1.74 million annualized rate, according to government data released Friday. The median estimate...

The federal budget tabled by the Liberals on Monday includes a stick targeting non-Canadians who own vacant properties. Included in Monday's budget, the first of the pandemic era, is a proposal for a new tax that would target foreign owners who leave property sitting empty through a national one per...

TD Economics is wading into the raging debate over how to cool Canada’s red-hot housing markets, calling on policymakers to avoid implementing any complicated measures that don’t address the key driver of the surge in residential real estate prices.   In a report to clients Thursday, TD Senior Vice-President and...

One Liberal MP argues that a housing correction may not be the silver bullet solution needed to fix Canada’s mounting housing affordability crisis.“When people tell you they want to cut housing prices by 10 per cent… there is no magic switch in the Finance Department or the Bank of Canada...

The head of Bank of Nova Scotia’s wholesale banking and markets business said there’s no easy fix for Canada’s housing affordability problem, but that both banks and government will need to play a role in solving it.Price increases have accelerated in recent months because of pandemic-related factors such as low...

When Sohel Imani went looking for a second location for his bike shop in Toronto’s West End, he knew he’d be able to leverage the city’s current commercial rental market.With dozens of storefronts sitting empty in any given Toronto neighbourhood, Imani says he knew he could throw out lowball offers...

Almost as soon as it was announced, the Canadian government’s first attempt to rein in the country’s pandemic housing boom was dismissed as not enough.Canada’s banking regulator signaled its intent Thursday to take a small step by tightening qualification rules for uninsured mortgages, worried that low interest rates will put...

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales hit an all-time record in March as supply slowly returned to the overheated market. Sales across the country amounted to 76,259 last month, up 76.2 per cent from 43,283 during the same period last year. On a month-over-month basis, sales...

Rental prices in Toronto are slowly picking up for the first time in more than 14 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report has found. Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research and Consulting captured the new figures in an April report, which examined how rental prices are changing in cities across...

Amid a scorching real estate market, the head of the Royal Bank of Canada warned that the country needs short-term policy changes to cool the stark supply and demand mismatch.“I do think we have a supply-demand imbalance that’s causing a very strong, heated marketplace,” RBC chief executive officer Dave McKay said...

Canada’s top banking watchdog is taking another shot at overhauling its stress test on residential mortgages in a move that would make it harder for some borrowers to qualify.The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) launched a new consultation on its B-20 stress test Thursday. Under the proposal...

TORONTO -- The head of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce says policy-makers should dramatically increase the country's housing supply, as sales and prices soar to record levels in cities including Toronto and Vancouver.CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig said heated housing conditions could be alleviated with more urban and suburban density,...

MCLEAN, Va. -- Mortgage rates fell for the first time in more than two months as buyers continue to be stifled by high prices and limited supply.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the benchmark 30-year loan rate dipped to 3.13 per cent this week from 3.18 per cent last week....

Bank of Montreal Chief Executive Officer Darryl White said Canada’s policy makers should work on preparing measures that could rein in the country’s surging home prices, but hold off on implementing solutions for at least a few weeks.During the coming weeks, provinces may be introducing another round of restrictions to...

Canada's largest housing market logged another month of record sales and price gains in March. The head of the local real estate board is warning of potential unintended consequences as Bay Street pundits make the case for policy intervention.There were 15,652 property sales across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) last...

Scotiabank Head of Capital Markets Economics Derek Holt doesn’t think the Bank of Canada should be able to wash its hands of responsibility for the massive run-up in residential real estate prices.In a television interview Tuesday, Holt said the Canadian central bank should take some ownership for the surge in home prices...

TORONTO - CBRE says Canada's downtown office vacancy rate increased for the fourth consecutive quarter to reach 14.3 per cent as more properties became available in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in recent months.The commercial real estate firm says the first-quarter downtown office vacancy rate was up from the 9.3 per...

Canadian consumer confidence hit record highs for a third straight week amid soaring sentiment around housing, despite a third wave ripping through the country and forcing new lockdowns.Two-thirds of Canadians believe home values will continue rising, according to polling by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News. That’s the highest reading...

CALGARY -- The Calgary Real Estate Board says March home sales in the city hit a level not seen in a decade as low lending rates and more savings continued to impact the market.The Alberta organization revealed Thursday that sales for the month amounted to 2,903, a 147 per cent...