Immigration versus housing shortages
Posted on Aug 22, 2023
There are two facts in Canada which are indisputable: (1) Immigration targets are 465,000, 485,000 and 500,000 for the next three years, and (2) there is a country-wide urban housing shortage. In many quarters, that raises an obvious question about bringing more people to live in Canada when there already aren’t enough places to live.
When Bloomberg...
Reprieve from rates, recession and inflation?
Posted on Jul 25, 2023
Is there anything more tiring than hearing about interest rates and the economy, week after week, month after month? Well, it may be time for some good news.
As in…hearing next to nothing about both.
Perhaps.
Statistics Canada is reporting that inflation fell to 2.8 per cent, and that’s just within the Federal Government’s tolerance target of one to t...
The days of summer — hot and ‘humidex hot’
Posted on Jul 19, 2023
There is “How hot is it?”…and there is “How hot does it FEEL?” The definition of each — and the difference between them — is measured by Canadian meteorologists as the “humidex.” In the U.S., it’s called “heat index” and is calculated using a slightly different formula of combining temperatures and humidity.
As climate change evolves, more attention...
Reactions to latest increase in interest rates
Posted on Jul 13, 2023
The latest interest-rate increase by the Bank of Canada to five per cent, the highest it has been since 2001, is not helpful for the real estate industry.
The nature of the preliminary market response and the discussions in the last couple of weeks among experts has left the impression that interest rate are maxed out so there doesn’t seem to be a...
A look at ‘repurposing’ downtown office space
Posted on Jul 09, 2023
There are high rises, and there are high rises. Some are for offices, the others for apartments. Generally, downtown areas have a generous supply of both. At least Vancouver does.
The pandemic resulted in more office employees “working from home” and many of them liked it so much that it has turned into a semi-permanent — or in some cases permanent...
Construction trades a good career path
Posted on Jun 25, 2023
If you have — or if you know — somebody who’s trying to decide on a career path, it might be a good idea to point them in the direction of building houses. Of course, that means anything connected to building a house: electrician, flooring specialist, general contractor and any number of trades.
As the country’s population hit 40 million people this...