I’ll start off by saying that I am not breaking any news by stating that the market has slowed significantly in recent days. We can blame interest rates, but the reality is that this same slowdown happens every December, and January. The combination of the holidays and the start of winter weather means people are choosing to relax, enjoy the season, and maybe do a little hibernating.  However,...

In the ever-shifting landscape of the real estate market, only a handful of factors hold as much sway as interest rates. The recent announcement from Bank of Canada is what both buyers and sellers have been waiting for: interest rates are holding steady. Let's delve into how this decision is poised to affect both parties as we embrace the Fall Market.  1. Relief for Buyers For those currently...

The past two years have not been an easy time for anyone who’s been looking to get into the housing market.  When prices haven’t been at dizzying, record-setting heights as they were in 2021 and early 2022, the highest interest rates in 15 years have stepped right in to compensate for falling prices – making the dream of home ownership just as difficult to realize for prospective first time...

With so many prospective Canadian home buyers continuing to feel the negative effects of the ongoing housing crunch as we move into 2023, governments at various levels have been working for months to do what they can to legislate relief.  Towards the end of last year, the Ontario provincial government secured royal assent for one of the largest such efforts seen anywhere in Canada to date – Bill...

I’m sure many of us will find common ground in hoping for some measure of stability in 2023, the new year coming as it does upon the heels of one which featured unprecedented ups and downs in the real estate market (just in case you weren’t already sick enough of seeing the word ‘unprecedented’).  And, happily, there are a handful of favourable indicators to the prospect of a more normal year...

The past 24 hours have brought a pair of significant developments in our province – both of which will change how millions of Ontarians interact with our housing market.  The roller coaster ride that’s characterized the past two years has been slowing for a few months now, with rising interest rates and general uncertainty working to put the brakes on the unprecedented price hikes of late 2020...

The past several weeks haven’t exactly been jam packed with good news on the economic front. Canadian consumers are aware by now of the pain that’s being inflicted both by the widespread economic malady of the day (inflation), as well as its hardly-more-attractive remedy (interest rate hikes). While the Bank of Canada’s efforts to curb runaway price increases since the beginning of 2022 have met...

The rapidly changing skyline of Waterloo Region is a theme I’ve visited many times before.  The condo building boom of the previous several years has been one of the most outwardly obvious signs of our area’s growing demographics and economy, and of our local governments’ focus on intensifying urbanization rather than expanding outwards. It might surprise you (or perhaps not!) to learn that...

With the summertime winding down and the kids beginning to make their return to the classroom, we in the real estate business are getting ready for the perennial increase in market activity, as families are back in town and people’s minds turn back to more business-oriented affairs. And as the pace of the Waterloo Region market pics up into September, we’ve also been given some new information just...

The end of the summer vacation season tends to be a hectic time for most people, but it’s always been doubly so for residents of Waterloo – for visiting students and year-rounders alike. With three major post-secondary institutions to be found within five minutes of the centre of town, late August and early September each year bring a surge of population back to what’s always been a relatively...