More recently, the latest Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index showed thatin February, attributed to “improving views on real estate.”
“Consumer confidence rose to the highest level since the end of September as more Canadians see real estate values rebounding after the central bank conditionally halted its interest-rate hikes,” wrote Randy Thanthong-Knight in afor Bloomberg News. “Improvements in sentiment point to expectations of an imminent recovery [in] Canada’s housing market, which saw benchmark real estate prices plunge 15% from last year’s peak as higher rates squeezed buyers.
Alexander notes that prices will likely continue to find support in the coming months due to chronically low supply. “It’s very fascinating because, outside of Calgary and a little bit of Edmonton, the story is the same across Canada, which is very low inventory, homes that come to market are selling pretty quickly and oftentimesWhile conditions in the housing market are nowhere near the pandemic frenzy, Alexander says that the home-buying desire is certainly there.
“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he says. “Consumers have to make buying and selling decisions, so they’re going to make them in the next several months. I think we’re going to get some balance, we’re probably going to get back to the normal real estate cycle.”As the rate hike cycle progressed over the past year, priced-out homebuyers turned to the rental market in record numbers. But the market is chronically underserved, so as competition edged up, so did rental rates.