Understanding the Housing Market ( by CMHC )

By understanding the housing market,
you'll have a better sense of where and when to by. 

Buying a home - an important lifestyle and investment decision and more than likely, the largest investment of your life – so far. 

You want to buy at the best price possible. You want your monthly payments to be as affordable as possible. You want your home to increase in value as much as possible.

To make sure all that happens, it's important to look beyond your individual purchase before you buy. You need to look at larger market conditions. What's happening around you (house price trends, mortgage rate movements, new home construction) will have an influence on your purchase. The more you know, the more control you have and the better your decisions will be. 

How do you develop an understanding of how the housing market is evolving? The easiest answer is to take advantage of the information offered by CMHC's Market Analysis Centre at any regional CMHC Business Centre. 

The Market Analysis Service is there to give you a clear picture of the current housing market. Local market analysis reports are published on a regular basis. They provide information on recent trends in housing market conditions. 

Your local CMHC market analyst can tell you if it's a buyer's, sellers or balanced housing market. 

In a buyer's market, the number of homes available for sale exceeds the demand, so prices will either stabilize or drop. 

With fewer buyers and more homes, you not only have more options to choose from, you also have greater negotiating leverage. 

You have more time to look for the right home and you can evaluate the choices without feeling pressure to act too quickly. 

Another major influence on your decision to buy is the mortgage interest rate. What rates are available now? Will they drop in the immediate future? Will they rise? If so, by how much? 

Trying to answer these questions can be difficult. Once again, CMHC's Market Analysis Service can help. It can provide you with an analysis of the mortgage market and an outlook for future mortgage rates.  

For those who need to see the big picture of Canadian housing, the Market Analysis Centre produces a series of national and local subscription reports to provide you with a comprehensive housing view across the country. 

You can also use CMHC's- AffordAbility computer software. It can help first-time home buyers, people renewing their mortgages and move-up buyers determine the home price and mortgage they can afford.    

The End

Our footnote to this article: Currently the Ottawa region is experiencing a very "hot" real estate market. This promotes a sellers market. For this reason, many homes which might not sell under more normal market conditions, may be now offered for sale. These homes have often undergone a quick painting and redecorating and may on the surface, show well to unsuspecting buyers. In this type of market it is extremely important to include a condition for a satisfactory home inspection. While a home inspection cannot eliminate all risk associated with purchasing a home, it may reduce it significantly and offer valuable insights into a properties real condition.

This information is provided as a service to our web site visitors.  While we attempt to ensure that all information is accurate and a fair depiction of real circumstances, it is to be used solely for information purposes. Home Inspectors® may not be held responsible for the accuracy of any of the above information. Re- production of any of this information is strictly prohibited without written permission of Home Inspectors®. 

© 2003 - 2013 - Home Inspectors® All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is unauthorized.