{"id":202320,"date":"2025-10-10T09:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202320\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T09:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:26:09","slug":"is-this-the-housing-markets-affordability-sweet-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202320\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this the housing market\u2019s affordability sweet spot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Calgary saw home sales in September fall by 14 per cent, while supply hit a five-year high.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Three weeks have passed since the Bank of Canada\u2019s rate cut<\/a>, and there\u2019s some evidence that those looking to buy are reacting to lower interest rates. <\/p>\n

Housing markets typically heat up once borrowing costs drop, and if we see another rate cut at the end of October \u2013 which seems likely \u2013 home shoppers could be wondering whether market conditions have reached a sweet spot in terms of affordability.<\/p>\n

The answer is complicated. Canada\u2019s current housing market is inconsistent; sales are ticking up in some major urban markets but languishing in others. Ample inventory has generally kept a firm lid on price growth, preventing any urgency growing among buyers despite the strong negotiating position typically offered by a supply glut. <\/p>\n

The main culprit is that housing costs and incomes remain largely unaligned \u2013 a challenge that\u2019s yet to be alleviated by lagging price growth or possible future rate cuts.<\/p>\n

Opinion: From boom to strain: Toronto-area housing faces a wave of distressed sales<\/a><\/p>\n

In a report<\/a> released earlier this week, Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada, said the recovery in home sales is \u201cstill uneven and fragile.\u201d <\/p>\n

Given the continuing economic uncertainty and the threats still posed by an evolving trade war, only those with sufficiently stable incomes and down payments should consider buying now. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the situation in three of Canada\u2019s largest housing markets \u2013 and what buyers should keep in mind as they try to decide. <\/p>\n

Toronto: Green shoots abound<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s housing market tends to respond quickly to rate cuts and the latest was no exception. While home sales remain historically low, they\u2019ve been steadily rebounding over the summer months, and recorded an 8.5-per-cent year-over-year increase compared with September, 2024, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). <\/p>\n

Buyer competition also firmed up slightly, as the increase in sales outpaced the 4-per-cent uptick in new listings. But while there are signs that supply is starting to dwindle, the city\u2019s average price remains 4.7 per cent below last year\u2019s levels at $1,059,377.<\/p>\n

This lull presents a rare opportunity for Toronto-area buyers, says TRREB chief information officer Jason Mercer, who represents the country\u2019s largest real estate board with 73,000 realtors and brokers. In the press release<\/a> that accompanied the board\u2019s September data, he wrote that two more quarter-percentage-point rate cuts from the Bank of Canada would effectively move mortgage payments in line with home buyers\u2019 average incomes, \u201cfurther spurring home sales and related economic activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vancouver: A slow stabilization<\/p>\n

While Vancouver undisputedly remains Canada\u2019s most expensive market, current conditions are leaning in favour of buyers: Inventory is now 20 per cent above the historical 10-year average, while home sales sit 20 per cent below it. Deals rose by a modest 1.2 per cent on an annual basis in September. Meanwhile, the benchmark home price reported by the Greater Vancouver Realtors<\/a> (GVR) dipped by 3.2 per cent to $1,142,100.<\/p>\n

And according to the sales-to-active listings ratio measured by the board, Vancouver prices are poised to fall further. The ratio, which measures the number of transactions compared with active listings in the market, currently sits at 11.3 per cent, below the 12-per-cent threshold that puts downward pressure on prices. <\/p>\n

However, according to Andrew Lis, GVR director of economics and data analytics, there are signs home buyers are moving past recent challenges. He expects \u201cmarket activity to continue stabilizing to the end of the year, barring any unforeseeable major disruptions,\u201d he wrote in the board\u2019s September release.\u202f<\/p>\n

Calgary: Shifting from a sellers\u2019 market to a balanced one<\/p>\n

Calgary has been one of Canada\u2019s hottest housing markets, with lower prices than in other cities and tight inventory that fuelled buyer competition. But that has started to unwind. <\/p>\n

In Calgary, condos become a hard sell<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), September home sales posted a 14-per-cent decline, while supply hit a five-year high. The total number of homes for sale rose 36 per cent on an annual basis, and 17 per cent above the long-term average for the month. As a result, the average price in the city fell 4 per cent from a year earlier to $572,800.<\/p>\n

Supply levels have been rising in Calgary\u2019s resale, new home and rental markets, while demand is slowing amid slower population growth and persistent uncertainty, Ann-Marie Lurie, CREB chief economist, said in the board\u2019s release<\/a>. \u201cUltimately, the additional supply choice is weighing on home prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The takeaway for Calgary buyers? Take advantage of the increase in choice, before lower interest rates reheat the market.<\/p>\n

Penelope Graham is the head of content at Ratehub.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Calgary saw home sales in September fall by 14 per cent, while supply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-202320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}