Good morning. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad real estate world – and it doesn’t seem like we’ll get a reprieve anytime soon. More on that below, along with a pair of international elections and hot tips for a cool sunset photo. But first:When it comes to finding a place to live, Canadians are in a triple bind: It’s outrageously expensive to buy, increasingly difficult to rent and super challenging to build . The statistics are heart-stoppingly bleak, so I’ll restrict myself to just a few.
Canadians shut out of the housing market are hard-pressed to find a rental instead. In Red Deer, Alta., for instance, the apartment vacancy rate plummeted from 13 per cent seven years ago to 0.8 per cent last fall. Part of the demand can be chalked up to the province’s growing population. Nearly 50,000 new residentsin the first three months of 2024 – two-thirds of them immigrants, and the rest escapees from elsewhere in Canada, especially Ontario and B.C.