This ratio is commonly used to decide if the market is “Buyers, Balanced, Sellers and Overheated. CMHC defines a housing market as “Overheated” when the ratio is over 85%, while 60% and over is considered seller’s market. Our ratio is 100.16% now! I do not think I need to say anything more…
The question I am being asked most recently is “How much will 1,2,3... bedroom home cost me? Or what can I get for $500k, 800k, 1M? So, using RE Stats Inc. I prepared a little March 2021 table for you:
The numbers I pulled from our local database are not granular enough so to get the answer to the question “How much will I pay for short-term rental investments?” you will have to contact me and I will be delighted to share the knowledge with you. Notice the DOM numbers, which indicate what price ranges are sold even without being listed at MLS.
How do we cool the “overheated market”?
Financial Post published a good summary of how to cool down a potentially overheated market in Canada. In short, The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (read Big Banks) moved to establish a new “floor” for mortgage rates not insured against borrower default (known mostly as CMHC insured). Under the proposal, you would have to qualify either at contractual rate plus 2% points or 5.25%., whichever is higher.
The above solution is only good in the short to medium term. The only long-term solution to the problem is to increase the supply side,
that is to cut the red tape and build more housing in big cities anywhere in Canada. It is my opinion that the short-term tweaking of interest rates can work for Vancouver and Toronto, it will damage the Calgary market and do nothing to the RED HOT recreational market. This is probably not going to fly in Canmore, where we recently saw the reaction to the new housing development offered by Three Sisters Mountain Village.
I have no idea how to cool the Canmore market. If you think that we reached the status of Aspen or Wail CO or Whistler BC, even a crash of the economy will not help in the long run. Big Canadian banks are proposing to change the rules in the middle of the upswing of the market. Low-interest rates are only one part of the problem, the desire for more space and to park money in expected inflationary times is hard to squash.
