Kerrisa Wilson

Calgary’s struggling job market combined with rising interest rates continued to weigh on the city’s housing market in July, resulting in fewer sales and an increase in inventory.

Although overall home prices in Metro Vancouver are still rising, price growth has been significantly easing for the last two quarters and even dropped for detached properties in some areas of the region.

Calgary’s vacancy rate has dropped for the first time since Alberta’s recession ended in 2016, which one economist says is a step in the right direction for the city’s recovering housing market.

Although overall home price growth has eased in Greater Vancouver over the past year, prices continue to rise in the region’s condo market, due to overwhelming demand for the more affordable homeownership option.

For an eighth consecutive quarter, Canada’s housing market remains highly vulnerable to instability thanks to moderate levels of price acceleration and overvaluation.

Despite new housing policies introduced by the BC government to address deteriorating housing affordability, the majority of British Columbians say it’s not good enough.

Instead of safeguarding Canada’s financial system, one association says the mortgage stress test is unduly suppressing housing activity, which could spell future trouble for the economy.

It’s been over six months since the new mortgage stress test rolled out across Canada with the aim of ensuring borrowers would be able to handle higher interest rates. However, one expert says the mortgage regulation needs to be improved to mitigate the impact on home buyers.

In an effort to curb British Columbia’s housing affordability crisis, the provincial government has introduced higher fines for strata short-term rentals. And, according to one realtor the fines could help renters grappling with the City of Vancouver’s severely-low vacancy rate.

While homeownership might seem unattainable for many in Toronto and Vancouver, an annual salary of just $26,300 is enough to get you a rowhouse in Calgary’s housing market.