![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/JPbombales-9706.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: James Bombales<\/em><\/p>\n Rising interest rates are frequently cited as a potential issue for Canadians looking to purchase a home. But according to one economist, they\u2019re actually good news for the country\u2019s housing market.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada\u2019s previously hot housing market and robust household borrowing trends have given way to much calmer activity in 2018, and that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d writes Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO, in a recent note.<\/p>\n\n According to Porter, stricter mortgage rules and rising interest rates have taken the market out of bubble territory into a more healthy and balanced state.<\/p>\n The Bank of Canada (BoC) raised the overnight rate to 1.50 percent in July, and is widely expected to do so again later this week.<\/p>\n \u201cPolicymakers probably couldn\u2019t have asked for a better outcome for the national market this year, with September figures showing MLS prices up 2.3 percent \u2014 almost precisely in line with [inflation] pace of 2.2 percent last month,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n Other good signs? Household debt growth has cooled to its slowest pace in 35 years, a relief for a country with some of the highest debt levels in the world.<\/p>\n