Canada is one of just three of the nine developed countries that saw year-to-year price growth, adjusted for inflation, in its housing market in this year’s second quarter. There was 5% price growth, on average, in the April-to-June period.
Canada’s housing market is the notable out-performer in comparison to other countries, where renewed doubts about the strength of the global economy are weakening an already fragile real-estate scene, says a Bank of Nova Scotia report released Tuesday. Even in the face of record high prices, ultra-low interest rates continue to support affordability.
The Bank of Nova Scotia report of the global housing market said that high unemployment, concerns over the financial health of some European governments, signs the global economic recovery is slowing down and recent stock-market volatility are burdening residential real-estate markets around the world.
Locally, our Kitchener Waterloo real estate market is strong, still growing slowly and performing well. As a Realtor, many people lately have been mentioning RIM layoffs as an reason to be cautious. Truth be told, RIM laid off 900 people locally a few months ago but I’ve heard from many people that all of them found jobs with other high tech firms (and there is still a great demand) or started their own companies.
