2021 News Index

Many under age 40 fear they will never be homeowners
Canadians are apparently split between giving up on ever buying a home or putting away money to save for one.

Oshawa leads GTA with 48 per cent home price hike
A new online home price calculator, Properly, has crunched Greater Toronto Area (GTA) pricing data to compare the selling prices of homes bought in the six-month period prior to COVID-19 (September 2019 to February 2020) with the current value (April 2021).

Renovators should ready for a boom in 2021
Six in 10 Canadian homeowners are planning to renovate in the next two years—with backyards, kitchens and bathrooms topping the list, according to a March 2021 survey from Scotiabank.

Foreign home buyers nearly vanish from Vancouver
While Metro Vancouver’s housing market has been on a blistering pace during the COVID-19 pandemic – with sales up 126 per cent year-over-year as of March 2021 – foreign buyers have nearly vanished.

PEI posts fastest population growth in Canada
Prince Edward Island is posting the highest population increase of any region in a country with the highest population growth in the word, according to Statistics Canada data.

Home prices rise faster in Saskatoon than Vancouver
Vancouver home price hikes during the year-old pandemic may seem high, but the increase is minor compared to metropolitan centres like Medicine Hat and Saskatoon.

Million-dollar home sales double in GTA
Sotheby’s International Realty Canada reports Greater Toronto Area (GTA) residential real estate sales over $1 million more than doubled in the first two months of the year—soaring 107 per cent year-over-year in January and February while luxury sales over $4 million surged 75 per cent.

More supply needed to cool housing market
Dueling economists are calling for government intervention in Canada’s red-hot housing market with very different ideas of what governments should be doing.

Smaller cities share in home sales boom
While Toronto and Vancouver grab the housing headlines, higher sales of homes and prices are also being seen in smaller markets right across the country, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Avalanche of listings coming to home market
In the 28 days ending March 19, a total of 6,471 new listings for homes came onto the Greater Toronto market, according to a survey by Zolo. A similar trend is being seen in Canada’s other big-city market of Greater Vancouver.

Kelowna boasts first $10 million condo listing
Kelowna, the third-largest city in B.C. outside of the Lower Mainland, moved into the big leagues of home prices this month with the listing of its first $10 million condo.

Lending rates stay low despite “exuberant” housing market
Despite a sharp uptick in Canada’s employment rate and an “exuberant” housing market, the Bank of Canada (BoC) has no plans to increase its overnight lending rate from the current rock-bottom 0.25 per cent, according to BoC governor Tiff Macklem.

Pandemic trends will stick, design expert says
A top U.S. home design firm, which works with number of architects and designers, says trends that emerged during the pandemic will become part of North American home designs for years.

Net-zero code mandated in three B.C. cities
Three of the most expensive housing markets in Canada will mandate net-zero level building codes starting July 2021 for new housing, but a major home builder says the top-level standard is too pricey for most Canadian consumers.

Wood back as top kitchen trend
Perhaps part of a pandemic-induced longing for a return to traditional values, wood is making a big comeback this year in new kitchen trends, according to HGTV, the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), and a top Canadian cabinet supplier AvA Kitchens.

Suburbs take lead in housing starts
Housing starts are becoming stronger in suburban markets surrounding major Canadian cities, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.(CMHC) data on January 2021 new home construction.

CMHC was wrong in spring outlook, remains cautious now
In May 2020, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) forecast that national housing sales would slump and that average house prices would fall from 9 per cent to 18 per cent over the coming 12 months proved inaccurate.

Young buyer survey findings “defies logic”
A Royal LePage survey released February 25 claims 49 per cent of B.C. residents between the ages of 25 and 35 already own a home—and that 27 per cent bought one during the pandemic.

Genesis buys 157 acres for Calgary subdivision
Calgary-based Genesis Land Development Corp. is paying $29.15 million for approximately 157 acres of future residential development land in the Calgary suburban community of Belvedere.

Lumber prices hit record US$1,000
Lumber prices have been increasing for months are at an all-time high. Western SPF (spruce, pine, fir) lumber prices rose to US$1,000 per thousand board feet on February 17, according to market analyst Random Lengths.

‘Affordable’ GTA homes will each cost $376,000
A federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) for the Greater Toronto Area, launched January 15, aims to create approximately 540 affordable homes. RHI is prioritizing “people experiencing homelessness, Indigenous communities and women and girls.”

BILD Alberta calls for renovation tax credit
BILD Alberta wants the province to introduce a renovation tax credit to help the industry recover losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

No-payment mortgage plan ‘looks crazy’
A Vancouver firm is launching a no-payment mortgage plan starting in B.C. and Ontario, but one mortgage expert said the scheme “looks crazy.”

GTA new condo prices crack $1 million mark
New home prices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have hit an all-time high, reports the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). Benchmark condo prices topped $1 million for the first time as of the end of 2020.

Canadian home prices rising by $7,376 per month
Prices have increased by 20 to 30 per cent in a number of markets across Canada in the past year, based on data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Mortgage deferrals fears prove unfounded, so far
A projected explosion in mortgage defaults following deferrals earlier this year as the pandemic bit into household finances has failed to materialize, with active deferrals in Canadian banks representing a mere 0.8 per cent of their residential mortgage portfolios as of December 2020.

GTA new home inventory dips to two-year low
A strong housing market in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has driven the inventory of new homes to a two-year low, according to the Building and Land Development Association (BILD).

New rentals have highest vacancies
While rental vacancy rates have increased across Canada, this rise is mostly apparent in new purpose-built rental projects completed over the past few years, according to the Rental Market Report 2020, released January 28 by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.(CMHC).

Low lending rate spurs record mortgage debt
Total residential mortgage debt in Canada ballooned to $1.66 trillion as of December 2020 as homebuyers and homeowners continued to pounce on the lowest mortgage rates in 100 years.

Winnipeg stars as Prairie home prices improve
Winnipeg proved a star performer among big cities in the Prairie housing market by ending 2020 with a 7.6 per cent annual increase in average home prices, while the province set an all-time annual high for housing sales.

UV-lit fans can kill COVID-19, tests confirm
A new ceiling fan that uses ultraviolet (UV) light can kill 99.9 per cent of the SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, according to the Canadian distributor and independent test results.

B.C. Lower Mainland homes now worth $50 billion more
Owners of more than one million properties in the Lower Mainland have seen values increase by $50 billion over the past 12 months, according to BC Assessment. The total value of these homes is now north of $1 trillion.

Edmonton 536-acre housing project under way
The City of Edmonton is developing the massive Blatchford residential community on a 536-acre site close to its downtown that once housed the City Centre airport.

First buyer incentive sweetened due to low demand
Canada’s First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI), which has met with very low demand, has been sweetened to attract more applicants in Canada’s most expensive housing markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria.

B.C. top U-Haul destination in 2020
British Columbia was the top province to move to in Canada in 2020, according to data released by U-Haul Canada analyzing internal migration patterns across the country.

CREA forecasts price hike in 2021
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) expects the national average home price will rise 9.1 per cent to $620,400 in 2021, with sales also rising everywhere but in Ontario.

Ontario, B.C. lead as residential permits surge
The value of residential permits rose to new heights in November, 2020, increasing 10 per cent to $6.4 billion and breaking the previous record set in September 2020. Except for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which reported slight declines, every province posted growth, according to Statistics Canada.

B.C. construction wages top at $50 per hour
Construction wages are rising in British Columbia as the industry faces a shortfall of workers, according to a survey of 1,000 B.C. construction firms by the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA).

North America’s most expensive home goes to auction
North America’s most expensive home, Villa Firenze, which is currently listed for US$160 million will be going to auction January 26, 2021 with no reserve and no minimum bid, according to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.

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