Sean MacKay

If you were paying attention to Canadian housing market headlines early in 2019, you probably started the year feeling pessimistic about market prospects looking ahead.

Montreal’s housing market has been on a dominant run and, while 2020 may not be as hot as 2019, it is still set to be a banner year for the city. Toronto began the year on a sour note before showing significant and sustained signs of recovery starting up in the late winter months and gaining strength through the summer and early fall.

After almost breaking an unenviable record in October 2018 due to a near total lack of sales activity, Toronto’s new single-family home market bounced back last month, soaring 178 percent.

There’s more than just a glimmer of hope in the outlook for BC housing and its largest market, Vancouver, in 2020.

Although some uncertainty remains in the market outlook, there’s little doubt that 2020 will be a more active year right out of the gate for Canadian housing. And this has economists looking at what the strength in housing means for the country’s economy as a whole.

Even the stubborn markets of Toronto and Vancouver — long the downpayment saver’s worst nightmare — registered improvements in housing affordability in 2019. It's not expected to last.

With the holiday season nearly upon us, real estate economists’ collective view of Canadian real estate’s 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.

Following a dismal start to the year, the province’s housing market and its biggest driver, Vancouver, have been showing signs of springing back to what market observers call “normal” levels.

Canadian home sales stayed put in October, preserving the gains made through the spring and summer seasons and keeping the sales total comfortably above the 10-year average for the month.

While the average rent in Toronto proper is by far the highest in the region at $2,527, Scarborough was the only area in the GTA to register a 20-percent-plus annual rental price increase.