Wednesday 7 March 2012

New Housing Affordability in Canada Reports Part l

Two new housing affordability reports released Wednesday offered a similar viewpoint: Canada's housing market is beginning to level off and prices are shifting in favor of buyers. Said Scotiabank's Adrienne Warren, a senior economist and real estate specialist with the bank, the market is cooling but still remains in better shape than many international markets. "I'm fairly encouraged by what we're seeing in the Canadian housing market currently.

We are looking at sales that have largely levelled-out over the last year or so but still it's quite a healthy pace of build, essentially really in line with the 10-year average," Warren said at the Real Estate Outlook and Trends Forum in Toronto.

Prices are easing, she said, as the combination of higher prices, tighter mortgage regulations and slowing job growth have had a cooling effect on demand. "In general I think we're looking at a relatively level pace of activity and as far as I'm concerned I think that's about the best-case scenario -- that we could see a still healthy housing market that supports the overall economy but not one that continues to heat up."

Warren did warn that if job growth slows significantly, or household debt spikes, the housing market would suffer.

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