A new report says the average asking rent for a home in Canada reached $2,185 in June, up seven per cent compared with a year ago despite representing the slowest annual rate of growth in 13 months.

The report by Urbanation and Rentals.ca, which analyzes monthly listings from the latter’s network, says average asking rents decreased 0.8 per cent from May — the largest month-over-month decline since early 2021 and atypical compared with usual monthly increases this time of year.

Based on the report, the average asking rent for a one-bedroom unit in Canada was $1,918 in June, up 7.7 per cent from a year ago, while the average asking price for a two-bedroom unit was $2,301, up 9.6 per cent.

Overall, asking rents for purpose-built rental apartments in June jumped 11 per cent compared with a year earlier to reach an average of $2,121.

Meanwhile, condominium apartment rents, which averaged $2,320, were up 2.6 per cent.

RE/MAX examined condominium activity between January – August 2024 in seven major markets across the country including Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, City of Calgary, Edmonton, Greater Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax Regional Municipality, and found that condo listings have soared in anticipation of increased demand in the fourth quarter of 2024 and early 2025. Growth in inventory levels was highest in the Fraser Valley (58.7 per cent), followed by Greater Toronto (52.8 per cent), City of Calgary (52.4 per cent), Ottawa (44.5 per cent), Edmonton (17.7 per cent), Halifax Regional Municipality (8.1 per cent) and Vancouver (7.3 per cent). Values have held up surprisingly well given the influx of listings, with gains posted in Calgary (15 per cent), Edmonton (four per cent), Ottawa (2.3 per cent), Vancouver (1.9 per cent), Fraser Valley (1.9 per cent), and Halifax (1.2 per cent). Meanwhile in Greater Toronto, the average price fell two-per-cent short of year-ago. While sales were robust in Alberta thanks to in-migration from other parts of the country, Edmonton led the way in terms of percentage increase in the number of condos sold, up just close to 37 per cent from year-ago levels, marking the region’s best performance in the previous five-year period. This is followed by a more tempered Calgary market, which was up 2.6 per cent over 2023. Remaining markets saw home-buying activity soften in the condominium sector.

Since the Bank of Canada (BoC) started raising interest rates in the spring of 2022 at a time of post-crisis sky-high home prices, first-time homebuyers have sat on the sidelines amid a housing affordability crisis. They have been waiting to dip their toes in the Canadian real estate market in this span. However, two groups of buyers have taken advantage of the current housing environment: seasoned buyers and investors.

Seasoned homebuyers and investors have driven many “hot pockets” of the Canadian real estate market in the first half of 2024, according to the findings of a new RE/MAX Hot Pocket Communities study.

Many homeowners have extra space they may want to convert into rental suites, such as an unused basement, or a garage that could be converted into a laneway home. Historically, the cost of renovating, combined with municipal red tape, has made this both difficult and expensive.

Recent municipal zoning reforms in Canada’s major cities, made possible through Housing Accelerator Fund agreements, are creating new opportunities for homeowners to add additional suites and increase density. New rental suites would provide more homes for Canadians and could provide an important source of income for seniors continuing to age at home.

In Toronto’s Bridle Path, Bayview Village, and Willowdale neighbourhoods, the average resident can expect to live past 84 years of age—higher than even Japan’s world-leading life expectancy. Meanwhile, in less affluent parts of the city, such as Rexdale, Oakridge, and Moss Park, death comes more than a decade earlier—on par with countries like Tunisia and Nicaragua.

Those stark numbers, published here for the first time, are the results of a monthslong collaboration between The Local and researchers at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital. The project uses the latest available data from the 2021 census and 2020 and 2021 provincial death records to examine life expectancy at birth in all 158 neighbourhoods of Toronto—that is, how long a child born in a particular corner of the city would live if current patterns of mortality remain unchanged.

One of the GTA’s leading real estate companies has lowered its year-end forecast for Toronto-area home prices to reflect the “soft” fall market. Royal LePage said it now expects the aggregate price of a home in the GTA will increase 6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year.

“The previous forecast has been revised downward to reflect current market conditions,” the report said. In July, Royal LePage had said it expected the price to rise by 10 per cent. The GTA is slightly ahead of the national price forecast of a 5.5 per cent increase, which was also lowered from 9 per cent.

Thinking that you might need to file bankruptcy can lead to many sleepless nights, but even more stressful is the thought of losing your home if you can’t keep up with your mortgage payments.

At a time of high home equity line of credit (HELOC) payments and increased mortgage payments due to higher interest rates, I’m hearing the word “foreclosure” more often than I have for quite some time. If you’re worried about the possibility of foreclosure, the best thing you can do is arm yourself with information so that you can either avoid it altogether or navigate it as successfully as possible.

Hopeful Canadian homebuyers may well have their pick of the litter when it comes to condos in many housing markets across the country, a new report from Re/Max Canada shows. The national brokerage said in its national condo outlook released Wednesday that listings in this segment of the market have “soared” in recent months.

A glut of condos in Toronto — now sitting around seven months’ worth of inventory — has been well documented over the summer. While Re/Max noted that Toronto’s condo listings were up 52.8 per cent year-over-year as of August, the city isn’t alone. B.C.’s Fraser Valley led the way with a 58.7-per cent increase over the same period, with Calgary’s inventory up 52.4 per cent and Ottawa’s rising 44.5 per cent.

The other cities included in the report, Edmonton, Halifax and Vancouver, saw annual gains between 7.3 and 17.7 per cent.

As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, the second Category 4 storm to hit the Gulf Coast in two weeks, many Canadians are grappling with uncertainty. More than half a million own homes in the Sunshine State, making them the top foreign buyers of property there. The impending storm raises critical questions about protecting real estate investments in the face of natural disasters. The Financial Post’s Shantaé Campbell explores an increasingly complex foreign ownership landscape.

Canada’s economy grew 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis in July, Statistics Canada said on Friday, more than analysts had expected. However, quarterly growth is still tracking well below the Bank of Canada’s forecast, leaving the possibility of a jumbo-sized rate cut on the table.

While July’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth was more than the 0.1 per cent rate analysts had expected, advance estimates show GDP was unchanged in August, as increases in oil and gas extraction and the public sector offset decreases in manufacturing, transportation and warehousing.