Buyers and sellers face a 'standoff' in the spring real estate market: economist

Canada’s real estate market is seeing some signs of increased activity, but one economist says a recovery will be gradual until interest rates are firmly moving down.

Robert Hogue, an assistant chief economist at RBC, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Wednesday that “some markets are picking up” across Canada, but on an aggregate basis the recovery in the real estate market “has probably not started.” He added that a recovery could be “gradual at first” and doesn’t expect a drastic increase in activity in the coming months. 

Hogue said he is expecting the Bank of Canada to start lowering interest rates in June followed by 100 basis points of cuts over the second half of the year and another 100 basis points of cuts into 2025. 

“So the implication for the housing market is that now probably as we get closer to that first cut, we might see a little bit more activity,” he said.