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<\/a>Photo: James Bombales<\/em><\/p>\nAnother chapter in the ongoing history of the Canadian housing market is about to come to an end.<\/p>\n
With the holiday season nearly upon us, real estate economists\u2019 collective view of the market\u2019s performance in 2019 has just about crystallized and the consensus is that it was a solid year that could have gone much, much worse after a worrying opening.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWith less than two months to go, 2019 will go down as a turning point for Canada\u2019s housing market, marking the end of the biggest correction since the Great Recession,\u201d wrote RBC Senior Economist Robert Hogue in a note published last week in response to the latest Canadian home sales data released for October.<\/p>\n
The year played out in dramatic fashion. With Vancouver looking practically moribund in the winter and Toronto in only slightly better standing, it was difficult to tease out a positive story as the markets plodded through the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
But by spring and into the summer months, fortunes reversed and the market overall has been on something of a hot streak. Some are even going as far to say that the housing market is once again a clear driver of economic growth<\/a> for the country at a time when exports are weakened and the oil sector remains perpetually in the doldrums.<\/p>\n And to brighten the picture even further, the housing outlook for 2020 is resoundingly positive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect low interest rates, strong labour markets and rapid population growth to keep the recovery going in 2020,\u201d writes Hogue. \u201cAny expansion of the first-time home-buyer incentive \u2014 as promised by the Liberals during the federal election campaign \u2014 at the margin could stoke the market further.\u201d<\/p>\n Hogue even points to a glimmer of hope that one of the country\u2019s most stubborn housing challenges \u2014 affordability in Toronto and Vancouver \u2014 may be improving ever so slightly.<\/p>\n