-Steve, Toronto

Hi Steve,

Historically speaking, the Canadian market has typically mirrored the US market – albeit not immediately but it is difficult not to follow suit sometimes when you’re so close together. I really wish I had a crystal ball to be better able to tell you what will happen as I am quite curious myself! What I can say is that the market dynamics in Canada are much better than they are in the US. Firstly, the lending system here is EXTREMELY different (i.e. banking system in US is decentralized while we pretty much have a big monopoly here, they get to write off mortgage payments off their income so they have incentive to have debt so 2^nd and 3^rd mortgages are quite common which is not as much the case here, money is easy to get, etc.).

Our employment, economic and immigration figures are much stronger than they are down there which shows that we still have strong demand, people have the finances and housing is still affordable. On a global market, Canadian real estate is still very affordable – some would say cheap even! For example, in Toronto, the average cost per square foot of a downtown condo is $380.00 but if you head south to New York, you’re looking at $1,000/sqft. In that sense, we’re actually attracting a lot of US and foreign investment into Canada. Hopefully I’ve addressed some aspects of your question, but the answer to this question could literally be a book! If you want more information, please contact me at joanna@thinktorontohomes.com