Overall sales and new builds for 2019 faced a decline, similar to what happened in 2018. But today the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) says it’s annual market outlook is experiencing an upturn.
The CMHC released its Housing Market Outlook profiling emerging trends in Canada’s house market variables including starts, prices, resales, vacancy rates and rents.
For next year, around 200,000 housing starts are predicted, offsetting two years of steady declines.
READ: September Housing Starts Dip By 2.5 Per Cent: CMHC Report
“Housing starts are projected to stabilize in 2020 and 2021 at levels in line with long-run averages,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s Chief Economist. This follows two years of declines from elevated levels in 2017. Resale activity and house prices are expected to fully recover from recent declines.”
So long as interest rates and unemployment levels don’t spike, CMHC predicts that families will have more household disposable income available to them.
By 2021, average prices on homes could reach the same numbers as their 2017 peak. “There are vulnerabilities,” says Dugan. “Given international trade tensions and the extreme levels of household indebtedness, there is some vulnerability still inherent in the market.”
READ: Strange Times: Are Toronto Buyers Lowballing Sellers?
So despite September’s period of slow housing starts, it appears the market is healthy and on the upswing.
That said, with sales predicted to increase, would-be buyers should jump at purchasing before another price hike in 2020.
