Real Estate Blog - Canadian real estate

Selling Under Balanced Market Conditions

Here is something you may not have heard in a while: the Canadian real estate market is inching closer to balanced market conditions.

That’s right. After the buying frenzy in 2020 and 2021, Canada’s housing sector significantly cooled off in 2022, driven by the Bank of Canada (BoC) raising interest rates, which resulted in market uncertainty and many prospective buyers sitting on the sidelines. This allowed for overheating real estate market to get doused by eliminating the easy money era of the last few years.

Of course, one of the primary developments in all of this has been the shift away from the red-hot seller’s market.

According to the RE/MAX Canadian Real Estate Outlook 2023 report, 60 per cent of regions in the…

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What Does the Future of Home Sales Look Like in Canada?

Real estate experts have been predicting how the Canadian housing market will fare in 2023 since the beginning of 2021. With current trends pointing towards a steady increase in home sales, it’s no wonder that many are eager to know what the future holds. With new trends and economic shifts, the landscape of home sales can be difficult to predict. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at why home sales are expected to continue to rise over the next few years, and what buyers and sellers can expect from the markets in 2023. 

How We Got Here 

Before we can look into the future, it’s important to understand how we got here. The Canadian housing market has seen an unprecedented surge over the past year due to both COVID-19 safety measures and…

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A Spotlight on Canada’s Most Affordable Housing Markets

For the first time since the early days of the COVID-19 public health crisis, residential property prices are coming down in the Canadian real estate market. Whether you call it a correction or a downturn, prospective homeowners might be finding housing affordability options across the country.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales tumbled 3.3 per cent month-over-month in November, and average prices declined 4.4 per cent year-over-year to $632,802. When the Greater Toronto Area and the Greater Vancouver Area are removed from the equation, the national average price is slightly more than $500,000. This is way down from the peak of more than $800,000 earlier this year.

But while…

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How Do You Make a Low Ball Offer?

Could the Canadian housing market be in store for the return of the low-ball offer? While this buying strategy became all but extinct given the heated housing market in the last couple of years, rising interest rates have caused many markets to cool, and shift from strong seller’s markets to more balances, or even tilted in favour of buyers.

What is a Low-Ball Offer?

A low-ball offer is when a prospective homebuyer makes an offer to purchase a home that is below the asking price.

When Should You Make a Low-Ball offer?

Low-ball offers are more common in a buyer’s market, when there are more listings than there are buyers, and competition is not a factor. Another common scenario for low-ball offers is when looking to…

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Selling a Property in Canada as a Non-Canadian Resident

Can non-Canadian residents participate in the Canadian real estate market? Sure, they can, but how does this work? We have put together a brief guide on selling a property in Canada as a non-Canadian resident.

Selling a Property in Canada as a Non-Canadian Resident Owner

A non-resident is allowed to buy and sell residential property in Canada.

Indeed, non-residents can enjoy many of the same facets of the Canadian real estate market as residents. They can obtain a mortgage loan from financial institutions as long as they fulfill the bank’s requirements and are approved for equity loans. Plus, for extra earned income on a property in Canada, non-resident property owners can also earn income on a property in Canada by renting it or using it as…

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What Reno Gives the Best ROI?

Will the carpet in my bathroom increase or decrease my property value? Let’s just say if you’ve asked that question then you’re in the right place to find out what’s relevant in the current Canadian real estate market, whether you’re browsing, buying, or selling.

RE/MAX® has been around since carpeting in bathrooms (please, no!) was a thing. Our 50 years of experience has taught us a thing or two about Canadian real estate. Don’t worry if you can’t keep up with everything there is to know about home-buying, selling and staging a property. That’s why we’re here – to clarify all your questions. And you can be sure that there are many, many questions.

So, How Much do People Really Know About Canadian Real Estate?

RE/MAX…

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Canadian Real Estate is Changing: What You Need to Know

The Canadian real estate market is in a state of flux right now.

It is hard to fathom that Canada’s housing sector recorded unprecedented gains a year ago – from tremendous sales activity to enormous price growth – and now the industry is in the middle of a sharp correction. Every market analyst and financial institution has offered a forecast of how much more the country’s real estate market could fall. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) projects a 25-per-cent decline by the end of next year, while Desjardins economists anticipate a 20-per-cent drop over the next year.

Whatever the case may be, the Canadian real estate market – be it major urban centres or cottage country – is going through an exceptional transition. Nobody…

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Is Low Supply Keeping Canadian Real Estate Prices High?

A year ago, housing affordability dominated national conversations as the Canadian real estate market exploded in growth, across major urban centres and rural communities alike.

For the last couple of months, it seems like this discussion has shifted, with affordability taking a back seat given recent moderation in the market following the unprecedented “COVID boom.”

The average price for a home in Canada was sold for about $630,000 in July, recent data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) confirm. This is down five per cent from the same time a year ago. When the red-hot markets of Toronto and Vancouver are removed from the equation, the typical price for a residential property falls to roughly $525,000.

Despite the last several…

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What the Bank of Canada’s Interest Rate Hikes Mean for Homeowners

In 2022, the Bank of Canada (BoC) has been raising interest rates at the fastest and most significant pace since 1998. In July, the organization increased the benchmark rate to 2.5 per cent for the first time since 2009, when the global economy was coming out of the financial crisis. Here’s what the Bank of Canada’s interest rate hikes mean for homeowners.

The central bank is trying to bust inflation, with the consumer price index (CPI) hovering around eight per cent. The Canadian economy has not witnessed inflation this high since the early 1990s, driven by a wide range of factors, from expansionary pandemic-era fiscal policy to surging commodity prices.

While inflation has eased this summer on the back of falling crude…

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Canadian Real Estate Trends: Putting the Headlines into Context

We’ve all heard the hype: Canadian real estate is facing the deepest market correction in the last 40 years. But this isn’t the first time that experts have forecast corrections or crashes, none of which have materialized in recent history. So, let’s read between the headlines and examine some facts.

“Canadian real estate prices are dropping.”

More accurately, prices are plateauing from the meteoric rise we experienced throughout 2021 and in early 2022. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the MLS Home Price Index edged down 1.7 per cent month-over-month in July, but it was still up 10.9 per cent year-over-year. While we have seen some easing in prices, the sky is nowhere near falling. In fact, there…

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