Canada

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"Housing affordability is a significant problem in Canada but not one that can be fixed by raising or lowering interest rates," Macklem said during a speech in Montreal on Tuesday.

Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins, said prices for both rented and owned accommodation are projected to continue growing above their pre‑COVID pace beyond the end of 2024.

"One of the key takeaways from the Bank of Canada's January 2024 Monetary Policy Report is that shelter inflation is likely to be the single most important driver of year-over-year price growth in the first half of 2024," he wrote in a research note.

"More restrictive financial conditions have limited the flow of private investments into new purpose-built rental housing, resulting in a decrease of planned projects and further fuelling the affordability crisis," the CMHC report said.

But some believe the mere anticipation of changes to the central bank's key overnight lending rate may lead to a flood of pent-up activity in housing sales.

If that's the case, affordability will only get worse as construction slowed, even while the pool of potential buyers swelled — with Canada experiencing record levels of immigration last year.

The original article contains 776 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!