The recent lower mortgage rate environment has yet to revive Canada’s slumping housing market, a new report has found.

RBC Economics published a report this month examining the impact of two rate cuts by the Bank of Canada, concluding the decreases have failed to spur activity in most major Canadian real estate resale markets.

The Bank of Canada cut rates 25 basis points in June and again in July, but through the summer most markets did not see an increase in sales activity, though new listings did rise. Calgary led major cities in sales declines in August on a percentage basis. Sales fell nearly 20 per cent year over year. At the same time, new listings increased 13 per cent year over year in Calgary, also the highest among the six urban markets in the study. Vancouver saw the next largest decline in sales at 17 per cent while new listings there grew about four per cent.

Mortgage rates are falling like presidential election hopes after a debate disaster. Indeed, fixed rates have dipped in nine of the 10 terms we monitor, with most shedding at least 10 basis points.

Why the lender generosity? Simply put, their costs to fund mortgages have nosedived to multi-month lows. Lender profit margins are now pleasantly plump — enough so to share the savings with Joe and Jane Borrower.

Canada has a productivity problem, and according to head economists at TD “there is one sector in Canada that wears the Scarlet Letter more prominently than the others: construction.”

The report, bluntly titled From Bad to Worse: Canada’s Productivity Slowdown is Everyone’s Problem, explores how growth has declined in almost every sector since the pandemic, from manufacturing, to oil and gas, to the service industry. “The woes are widespread,” says the report, but they make it very clear that the construction sector is the main culprit, namely the residential segment.

Finding affordable housing continues to be a growing problem in many communities across Canada — including in southwestern Ontario.

The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is moving ahead with what it calls transitional cabins to try and help the issue of homelessness by putting solid roofs over more heads. 

Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.   

Girouard is a well-known broker who previously appeared on a Quebec reality show that follows top real-estate agents in the province. She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000. 

Canada

Canada’s housing market softened in July 2024, with the national average home price and benchmark price slightly declining compared to the previous month and year. In July 2024, the national benchmark home price, which measures the price of a “typical” home, was $724,800, a a 0.8% monthly decrease and down 4.3% year-over-year. The average home price in Canada stood at $667,317, reflecting a 4.1% decline from the previous month and a 0.2% decrease from the previous year.

The national unemployment rate ticked higher again in August as the labour market continues to cool, prompting some economists to wonder if the Bank of Canada should be cutting interest rates faster.

Statistics Canada said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 6.6 per cent, up from 6.4 per cent the month before, amid a gain of 22,000 net jobs. The increase reflected gains in part-time work but declines in full-time jobs.

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) home sales were down on a year-over-year basis in August 2024. New listings were up slightly over the same period. While the region’s housing market remained well-supplied in August, average home prices only edged slightly lower compared to August 2023.

“The Bank of Canada’s rate cut announced on September 4 will lead to a further improvement in affordability, especially for those using variable rate mortgages. First-time buyers are especially sensitive to changes in borrowing costs. As mortgage rates continue to trend lower this year and next, we should experience an uptick in first-time buying activity, including in the condo market,” said Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) President Jennifer Pearce.

When Shanice Sharpe moved into a one-bedroom apartment at 22 John St., in the working-class neighbourhood of Weston in the Greater Toronto Area, her rent seemed reasonable.

But since 2022, it has shot up nearly 10 per cent each year and she’s currently spending most of her monthly income on housing. “I have three jobs just to pay for my life,” she said.

The majority of her fellow tenants have faced similar hikes from the building’s Canadian owner, Dream Unlimited, which has $25 billion in assets.