Housing Market Insight — Canada

Description

Our Housing Market Insight series addresses special topics related to housing In Canada. It provides insights, analysis and information to support informed decision making within the housing and housing finance sectors.

Highlights from our latest releases

At the time of our 2020 Housing Market Outlook report, there was extreme uncertainty about how the pandemic and economic consequences would evolve. Our latest Housing Market Insight explores housing trends in major markets since March 2020, when the global pandemic was declared. This report examines factors that led to differences between forecasts and actual housing market activity, with a focus on home sales and prices.

Key findings:

• Lower household spending increased the household savings rate to historic levels in the second and third quarters of 2020.
• Sales growth was stronger for more expensive housing in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
• Decreased demand for less expensive housing types due to those employed in lower-paid industries were less able to adapt to pandemic conditions.

Another recent Housing Market Insight explores the last three decades of intra-metropolitan location of new housing construction in major Canadian urban areas:

• Toronto
• Montréal
• Vancouver

Key findings:

• Outside city cores, housing completions are increasing with distance from the city centre because lots are available and less expensive.
• Central areas have their own dynamic in which housing completions are booming because of condominium apartments in multi-unit buildings.
• The population density analysis shows that housing completions tend to increase with population density in Vancouver but decrease in Montréal.
• The family income analysis reveals that the level of housing completions is the highest in middle-class areas.

Author:

CMHC

Document Type:

PDF

Date Published:

February 25, 2021

ID Number:

68469