The snooze

As regular addicts will note, our resident moaners took the bait in yesterday’s jingoistic, maple-slurping defence of our beloved Dominion, and argued the opposite.

“Canada is broken,” they cried, “because we can’t afford a house.”

First some facts.

Fact: the home ownership rate in Canada, excluding the far north, is 68.4%. The Rock is the highest at 75% and Quebec the lowest at 60%. Only a third of Canadians rent. The rate in the US, by way of comparison, is 65% with Americans think they have a housing crisis. (Mortgages there are close to 7%.)

Fact: The average house price in Canada, excluding the GTA and the LM, is $546,000. To buy that house with 10% down takes a gross annual household income of $105,000. The average gross annual household income in Canada is $106,300. So the average family could in fact buy the average house, if they have fifty grand to put down. Ask your Mom.

Fact: In Toronto, the moaners are correct. To buy the average property requires a household income of $205,000 while the average family brings in $121,000. Ditto in Vancouver, only worse.

Conclusion: don’t live in Vancouver or Toronto. Instead pick Montreal, Ottawa or Calgary. All big cites. All with oodles of opportunity. All have hockey teams. All vastly more affordable, and likely more interesting.

Well, let’s look at the current situation. As this pathetic blog has opined recently, things seem to be stabilizing. The correction looks to be winding down.

July sales in Toronto were almost identical to last summer. No big dip because of war, heat domes or Armin van Buuren’s recent dogawful concert. On a yearly basis, prices are down 4.5%, but up slightly month over month. Listings are off and buyer competition is therefore higher, keeping prices steady.

The local real estate wizard king says, of course, you had better buy now. “With sales accounting for a larger share of listings, buyers may find there is less room to negotiate moving forward. If current trends continue, home prices could start to level off compared to last year. Many would-be homebuyers are waiting for confidence in the market and broader economy to improve before making a purchase. This includes more clarity on tariffs, inflation and borrowing costs.”

Yada. Yada. The point is that the correction seems winding down.

In Victoria it was “a solid month for sales,” says the cartel. ““We ended the month above the five-year average for number of sales in a July. What’s different about this market is the availability of inventory, and how the generous number of homes for sale impact both the seller and buyer experience. Buyers are taking more time to make decisions because of all the options available. Some buyers may even feel overwhelmed as they navigate a market with so much choice.”

By the way, prices for a house in that vastly-overvalued but smug and self-absorbed city seem to have stabilized at $1.3 million. Try not to be overwhelmed.

Calgary? Some people mutter that the looming moronic referendum has already started to chill the market. Maybe so. Or perhaps 17,000 new condos under construction have underscored the inability of the property industry to match supply and demand.

In any case, sales dipped 9% and the average residential price was off 2%, at a bargain-basement $569,200. Says the real estate board economist: ““Several consecutive years of high construction levels and the sudden drop in mostly international migration have contributed to the shift in housing market conditions mostly for higher-density homes, a transition that started in the second half of last year,”

In London the average price of $557,000 is about where it was a year ago. At just over a million prices are slightly higher (1%) than they were last summer in the central Okanagan. Across NS the average selling price of $438,000 is up a couple of points over last year. In The Peg sales were down but prices up – “July 2026 saw the residential detached average price of $454,264 increase 2% from last year and increase 6% from the 5-year average.”

Tomorrow more stats from Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. But you get the drift here. No boom. Definitely no crash. Just a snooze in the grass.

It’s done.

About the picture: “Daily reader for nigh on a decade (plus all the posts before that, to be sure I was up to speed).  I’ve had a harder time avoiding the comments lately, if only for the entertainment…” writes Andrew. “In case you still need dog pics, here’s Nova.  She’s previously graced your page as a pup guarding a box of fundraising cheese (and maybe in another winter dog scene with her sister, Stella).  Today, in the Dog Days of Summer, she’s trying to relax in the cool grass as much as possible.  Not sure about the pic but, IRL, it looks like she’s almost being absorbed by it!  I keep sending links to your column to my human kiddos—I hope they read them because they have been enormously valuable to my approach to investing since I discovered your blog!”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/08/06/the-snooze/