Where Canada's housing market is going has been the subject of much debate lately.
Can the market in 2022 be as cool as we saw earlier this year?
In a report released this morning, real estate company RE MAX said home prices will increase by 9.2% in 2022.
The migration between provinces has been a big factor in the housing boom during the pandemic, as buyers are able to work from wherever and seek the bigger spaces and smaller prices of real estate outside of the big city centres.
Christopher Alexander, president of RE MAX Canada, said that the inter-provincial relocation trend that we began to see in the summer of 2020 remains strong and is expected to continue into 2022 based on feedback from our brokers and agents.
It is this provincial migration that makes the outlook for the Atlantic provinces one of the brightest in the country. Over the outbreak a flood of out-of- province buyers, many from Ontario, have snapped up properties in larger centres such as Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John, Halifax, Charlottetown and St. John s.
RE MAX expects the sellers market to continue, except in Charlottetown and southern Nova Scotia, where it expects the return of more balanced conditions.
Halifax and Moncton are expected to see price increases of 16% and 20%, some of the highest in the country.
RE MAX expects to have a large majority of Canadian regions to remain in a sellers market by the end of 2022.
In a Leger poll, half of those surveyed believe that real estate will be one of their best investment options in 2022.
In Ontario, some cities stood out in 2021 for their price appreciation, including London, where prices went up 30%, Durham, up 29% and Brampton, up 25%.
In 2022, RE MAX brokers believe that there is strong price growth in smaller centres such as Sault Ste Marie, rising 15%, Thunder Bay, 10% and Muskoka, 20%.
One of the few buyers markets in Canada is Winnipeg. RE MAX expects this to continue in 2022 with prices rising just 3.5% to an average of $322,858.