Its January 16, 2022. After a crazy year of selling homes under multiple offers, staging, strategizing and dealing with distraught buyers, will 2022 bring some relief? Not yet.
Until the Bank of Canada raises its policy interest rate, housing prices will not slow down. The last sector to gain momentum....the apartment condo sector, is starting to show some gains now which is primarily due to two factors: People downsizing so they sell their home to take advantage of the gains in the detached market and first-time buyers who have been priced out of the townhome market and detached home market.
Canada and U.S. Central Banks are looking at economic momentum and inflation. Inflation is expected to back down to just 2% in the last half of 2022 - this predicted by the two central banks. So I guess we will see.
In the meantime, we have time to sell and no time to buy. As prices begin a solid incline, buyers are anxious to lock in to current interest rates (because dispite the prime rate holding fast in Canada at 1/4%, banks are creeping their rates up to take advantage of the demand for mortgages) and sellers don't want to gamble and hold off selling because no one is quite sure just when the housing prices will peak this year. We do know this...once the Bank of Canada raises its rate, buyers will go into a frenzy to purchase and the housing prices will spike. For sure. And once those 90 to 120 days interest rate-hold windows end that the banks are offering. you will see a dramatic decrease in buyers and housing prices start to decline. Depending on the regional demand for housing, the rates will decrease slightly or decrease a lot. Calgary is seeing solid migration and this is the ONLY thing that will keep housing prices from slowly draining back down to 2014 levels.
Advice to Buyers and Sellers? Buyer first, then Sell or you will find yourself living in a hotel, staying with friends, winter camping or sleeping on your parent's couch for a while.