A new report draws parallels between market conditions today and those from ten years ago, saying that “buyer mentality, mortgage rates, unaffordability, and demographics were not as opposing and could provide an indication of future trends.”In many ways, we’re in an outlying time for real estate.
In fact, according to the Bank of Canada’s Housing Affordability Index, which measures how housing-related costs like mortgage payments and utility fees stack up to average household disposable income, unaffordability rose from Q1 of 2013 to Q4 of 2013, and has never returned to the level it was in Q1 of 2013.
Although mortgage affordability today is nowhere near what it was ten years ago, major Canadian real estate markets are similarly seeing hearty demand from first-time buyers, including new Canadian buyers, who are flooding into the country at a“Also fueling the competition are first-time homebuyers, who largely stayed on the sidelines in 2022 but have now adjusted to the prospect of interest rate hikes and are eagerly participating in the market,” continues Scibetta.