![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/spring_market_house.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0Sigmund<\/a> \/ Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nCanada\u2019s spring house hunting season \u2014 typically the busiest time of the year for home transactions \u2014 will be effectively cancelled this year.<\/p>\n
The strict social distancing measures that are critical to the fight against COVID-19 will make it all but impossible to follow through with the activities that the conventional home sales process necessitates.<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s the takeaway for the near term Canadian housing picture from RBC Senior Economist and housing market expert Robert Hogue from a thought leadership piece published earlier this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect realtors to suspend open houses and cut any private showings to a bare minimum,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere will be plenty of reasons for sellers to wait and see as well. A shock like this one is an inauspicious time to get full value for a property. We expect for-sale inventories to shrink, which will further contribute to stall activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the outlook for the spring months is bleak, Hogue delivers some much appreciated optimism about a timeline for a housing market recovery. This message is you shouldn\u2019t expect activity to resume overnight, but RBC is currently\u00a0“penciling in” an early summer \u201crestart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, as with all things during this uncertain period, the exact timing is highly dependent on the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and how soon the strict measures are lifted or gradually relaxed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the recovery will come in stages \u2014 taking buyers up to a year to regroup and rebuild confidence amid high unemployment,\u201d wrote Hogue.<\/p>\n
Even in an optimistic recovery scenario, Canadian home sales will take a huge hit on the year, with Hogue projecting a nearly 30 percent dive as sales reach a 20-year low at the national level. But looking to 2021, the economist sees a massive sales surge on the horizon when the \u201ctemporary shock\u201d of the pandemic sits comfortably in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cExceptionally low interest rates, strengthening job markets and bounce-back in in-migration will generate substantial tailwind. We project home resales to surge more than 40% to 491,000 units in 2021,\u201d wrote Hogue.<\/p>\n
While the outlook for the spring months is bleak, Hogue delivers some much appreciated optimism about a timeline for a housing market recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":201823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2020-04-02T13:05:36Z","apple_news_api_id":"2e930c04-86ce-4b06-b8bc-3ea7ee7afb0e","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2020-04-02T13:19:49Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ALpMMBIbOSwa4vD6n7nr7Dg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/u48r14.digitalhub.com\/sections\/09b86915-7d2b-3acd-915b-b215002d01b7"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11269],"tags":[],"coauthors":[8652],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n