Chilliwack realtors meet with MPs, including Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl, in push for national housing roundtable

“The federal government should take a leadership role and convene a permanent national housing roundtable bringing together federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal authorities along with builders, real estate professionals and civil society organizations,” CREA wrote. “As a part of this roundtable, CREA and realtors can bring their expertise to the roundtable through well-researched reports and can generate data-informed perspectives to identify priority issues and deliver solutions to various market challenges. Solving Canada’s housing challenge should be a national priority as addressing the issue of housing supply requires all hands on deck.”

A CREA booklet released by Steve Lerigny of CADREB indicates there’s been a seismic shift in the real estate market in 2022. Housing activity and prices have softened following several rate hikes from the Bank of Canada, which raised the benchmark interest rate 300 basis points.

To compound matters, the stress test, which did serve to protect borrowers and the financial system from the lure of ultra-low rates in recent years, is now forcing buyers to qualify for loans at rates well above what they are ever likely to face, given this year’s rapid rate hike tightening cycle which is widely believed to be nearing its peak.

While home sales have transitioned from setting all-time records to merely average, and prices have fallen from the peaks of last winter in some regions, the supply crisis across the country has not gone away, CREA says. Steep rate hikes have likely only shifted the pressure temporarily into the rental market where vacancy rates are typically in the single-digit range.

In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, low interest rates, record levels of international immigration and an increasingly middle-aged millennial cohort combined to fuel very strong household formation and housing demand in Canada, particularly from first-time buyers, CREA argues. This served to steadily draw down on available inventories and tighten market conditions. The pandemic only accelerated those trends, leading to the strongest seller’s market the country has ever seen. While many underlying fundamentals have not changed, the interest rate component has changed considerably. With inflation at its highest levels in three decades, the Bank of Canada, per its mandate, is acting aggressively, leaving the economy and housing markets caught in the crossfire, CREA contends.

There are over 155,000 realtors in Canada affiliated with the national CREA.

by Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack realtors meet with MPs, including Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl, in push for national housing roundtable

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