why didn’t Vancouver housing take a summer break?

The rennie podcast is about the real estate market and the people connected by it. Tune in for monthly discussions making sense of the latest market data.
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⁠Episode #78: WHY DIDN’T VANCOUVER HOUSING TAKE A SUMMER BREAK?

Seasonality is once again taking a backseat to macro-ality. In this episode of the rennie podcast, Ryan Wyse, Lead Analyst and Market Intelligence Manager, and Amy Chan, rennie advisor and Sales Manager at Grosvenor’s Brentwood Block, discuss how macroeconomic conditions are shaping Vancouver’s housing market. From resale to new home sales, they unpack buyer behaviour, the latest jobs data, and what it all means for the Bank of Canada’s next move.

Featured guests:

Ryan Wyse, Lead Analyst and Market Intelligence Manager

Amy Chan, rennie Advisor and Sales Manager at Grosvenor’s Brentwood Block

Thank you for tuning in to The rennie Podcast, where we share our passion for homes, housing, community, and cities. We hope today’s episode sparked the same curiosity in you that drives us every day. If you enjoyed the conversation, don’t forget to subscribe and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. And if you have a moment, we’d love for you to leave a review—it helps others discover the insights, analysis, and perspective we bring from the rennie Intelligence division. For the latest market updates, be sure to register at rennie.com.

Have a real estate question? You can either email us at intel@rennie.com, or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/therenniepodcast, and we’ll try to respond in our next episode.

Transcript

Introduction: Welcome to The rennie Podcast, where we talk about the real estate market and the people connected by it. Our goal is to empower you to make informed decisions and provide context for the real estate world around you. We hope that with every episode, you will become a little more knowledgeable and a lot more curious.

 Ryan Wyse: Welcome to The rennie Podcast. I'm Ryan Wyse, Market Intelligence Manager and Lead Analyst with Renny's Intelligence Division. Ryan Berlin will not be joining us today. He's off on a well-deserved vacation. So while we're running dangerously low on Ryans today, we do have an Amy, rennie advisor for the past seven years, all of your career as an advisor with rennie. Um, you have a successful resale business, but you're also sales manager on Grosvenor's Brentwood block. Is that right?

Amy Chan: That's right. Yeah. I started in, uh, rennie with this brokerage in 2018. Kind of did the interview process when I was first licensed to see who would best align with what I wanted within my career for real estate, and rennie just kind of hit that mark. You know, they kind of dabbled in the, uh, development industry and then also the resale, so you could have best's- uh, best of both worlds.

Ryan Wyse: So you've done quite a bit of project sales. I- I've seen you've been on stuff on the west side of Vancouver, downtown, Coquitlam, Metrotown, and now Brentwood. So you've kind of done it, uh, throughout the region.

Amy Chan: Definitely. Yeah. All of them really played a real pivotal role of where it was gonna take me next in real estate. Shannon Wall Centre in the west side was just such a elevated top-tier product to sell. So that kind of gave me a little bit of like the luxury market and dealing with the luxury buyer there and that demographic. And then it pulled back into kind of Metrotown, which is what we're seeing more of the typical buyer demographic in these sub areas like Metrotown, Surrey, you know, uh, Coquitlam. All of them just expanding so much.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: You can definitely see it when you're on a plane leaving Vancouver, which we love.

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan: All the pockets of high-rises, it's- it's so neat to see.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm. Awesome.

Amy Chan: Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Wyse:  So on today's episode, I want to start with a theme that we've talked about quite a bit on this podcast, which is that macro-ality, a term that we've kind of just made up, is more important today than seasonality as it relates to the resale market. Then we'll talk about the resale/new home segment of the market and what's going on there right now. We'll get into the Q2 numbers and some of your insights and what's happening at- in Brentwood at Brentwood block. And then we'll talk about those aforementioned macro factors, uh, that have thrown seasonality for a loop, like the jobs data that just came out last week, some of the consumer confidence metrics, uh, and the recent Bank of Canada decision. Uh, so with that, let's jump in. So in July, we had just under 3,400 sales for the Vancouver region, which is the most of any month this year. So, sales peaked so far this year in July. That's only ever happened once before in this region, in 2013 of all- all years. And the typical month-to-month change from June to July is a 12% decline in sales. So, while sales were still well below average, 22%, uh, below average, that was the closest average since January. You know, typically, we see March, April, May as the busiest months of the year in this market. But March and April, in particular, were really slow. May was as well. And things have started to trend up. So, I guess my first question to you is, has your phone been ringing a lot more in summer than it was in the spring?

Amy Chan: I would say for some reason more focus with sellers right now.

Ryan Wyse: Okay. Well, there is certainly a lot of inventory in the market, and we'll [laughs] get to that in a minute.

Amy Chan: Yeah, definitely. Buyers, I mean, they're very skittish.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan:  You know, everybody... It's literally... Like the analogy I like to put it, it's the high school dance, you know? Like, grade eight, all the buyers are on one side.

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan:  All the sellers are on the other side. Who's gonna make that move?

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Right? So, I'm more kind of managing seller expectations right now. They're not getting the price they want, but yet they need to sell. And then, you know, it's just the copious amounts of open houses, showings. You know, we're doing what we can marketing-wise to get the buyers through the door, but there's no offers. So, it really reiterates the buyer confidence-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... and sentiment more so than ever, that- that we need some reinjection of confidence, be it a, you know, quarter-point drop. And that's not gonna make a huge difference-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

 Amy Chan: ... on their mortgage payment, but if it's gonna make a difference on their confidence-

 Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan:... that's what's gonna get them off the fence.

Ryan Wyse: Okay. So there's still just under 26,000 listings total inventory on the market today. So listings fell between July and August when typically they kind of plateau in the summer. But at like 3%. So, we saw another, like, anti-seasonal change here with a- a small drop in inventory. First drop, uh, of the year. But listings are still 50% higher than average. So there's still so much inventory. And like to your point, your sellers are still competing really hard. With this uptick in sales, like do you think there's a few more buyers out there? Or maybe there's a little bit more of meeting in the middle between some sellers and some buyers, uh, as expectations get adjusted?

 Amy Chan: I think there's a bit of both. But I had a lunch meeting recently with a local notary. And I just want to pick her brain, right?

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Because she's doing the completions. She's, you know, transacting and she sees that side.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: The final- final stage. Right? I'm like, "Who- who's transacting right now?" And it's o-... 80% first time home buyers. Even with us at, uh, Brentwood Block, we are seeing definitely the uptick for first time home buyers capitalizing on those new policy changes that they have for the GST exemption, PTT exemptions- 

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... like, all that kind of stuff. And that's even translated onto how deals are even written.

Ryan Wyse: So, with the PTT exemption, that's up to, I believe, 1.1 million. The GST exemption is fully up to one ladder down, up to 1.5. So, you're seeing a lot of those first-time buyers coming in at like, 999, 1099, like, in that ballpark?

Amy Chan: Yes.

Ryan Wyse: Okay. And that's sort of moving the needle a little bit for them, whether it's sort of 2% less on PTT or 5% less on GST, yeah. Less.

Amy Chan: Yeah, huge savings if it's a million.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Amy Chan: I know that's not the typical budget for most first-time home buyers-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... so we're definitely still seeing Bank of Mom and Dad leaning in and then helping out with the, you know, initial deposit.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: That hasn't changed. Hot market, slow market, we definitely still see that help from the parents or family or wherever.

Ryan Wyse: So, you brought up pre-sale, so let's just jump into the Q2 numbers. So, there were just over 2,200, call it new home sales. Like, it's not a true pre-sale market right now 'cause so much of the, so much of the activity's in completed and under construction inventory, but 2,200 sales. That was up 55% from Q1. Q1 was the lowest quarter we've ever seen in this market since our source data, Sonda Urban, started tracking, but Q2 was still 29% last year. So, we saw a huge increase, well, more than 50% over Q1, but it's still below average. It's still less than last year. At the same time, inventory is at an all-time high on, in that new home market at more than 16,000 homes available. So, there's a lot, a lot of competition out there, but there are a few more deals happening. You already mentioned first-time buyers. Like, who else is walking through the door right now? I imagine investors are still kind of sidelined, but it's more so the end user crowd.

Amy Chan: Absolutely. You're, uh, bang on with that. So, investors definitely have leaned back. There's just a lot of additional policy changes for investors to, you know, give them lack of confidence-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... in investing in the Vancouver real estate market. Most of our buyers for Brentwood Block have been end users.

Ryan Wyse: Okay.

Amy Chan: Full stop. So, either they're up-sizers or they're moving out of neighborhoods that didn't quite pan out for them.

Ryan Wyse: Okay.

Amy Chan: It's changed. Specifically, downtown hasn't, hasn't really recovered from, uh, COVID. Those buyers are coming kind of more.

Ryan Wyse: Okay. Are you seeing anyone come back from the Valley who maybe moved east in COVID who thought that they, uh, could work from home full-time and then now they realize they can't, they want to be next to a SkyTrain station again? [laughs]

Amy Chan: So, during COVID, they valued the space.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Langley really blew up during that time.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah, and they didn't care about the commute 'cause they didn't have one.

Amy Chan: They didn't care. Yeah, they didn't have one. But now that we've kind of come out of COVID and we're kind of getting some normalcy back in our lives, they're now gearing back to amenity-rich-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... neighborhoods. So, like the Brentwoods, the Surrey, the Metrotown.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Yeah.

Ryan Wyse: Okay. So, one of the things that we've been tracking the last few quarters that's, that's come up a lot more, and one of the reasons kind of calling it new home market instead of pre-sale market is how much completed inventory there is. So, we started tracking this at the end of last year, th- we, we're getting up to 2,000 completed unsold condos in this region. As of Q2 now, we're up over 2,600, around 2,650, and there's a lot more coming of unsold condos in under construction projects that'll come over the next couple of years. And there haven't been a lot of project launches this year at the same time, so there's been, if I look at Concrete Towers, sort of your competition, there's been nine this year, about 1,500 homes. So, that is on pace for the fewest on record. But it, it's quite different buying a completed home or an almost finished home versus like, a more true pre-sale. Do you find that your end user buyers and prospective buyers are shopping the different segments, or are they more sticking with like, "Okay, I need a home delivered around this year"? 

Amy Chan: Yeah. I mean, it's a great question, although it's very unique to the buyer.

Ryan Wyse: Right.

Amy Chan: So, when you're looking at pre-sale, your, your considerations are timeline.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: You know, do you need that, that buffer to move, sell, and then move into your new home? Most, uh, end users will look at resale because they wanna know currently wh- where prices sit-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... in comparison to pre-sale. Pre-sale is more future value too.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: And then depending on the type of location, it just plays all into it. Like, with us, Brentwood Block, like, Grosvenor has such confidence with the future of Brentwood and where it's gonna land in about five, 10 years, that they're, they're willing to, you know, submit for BP and have that confidence in like, digging and-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... I mean, they're, they're not a homegrown developer. They stem from London.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: 365 plus years of doing international development. So, they're not new to the game and they can kind of forecast those really pivotal communities that have that future grounding.

Ryan Wyse: So on that topic of, um, like true pre-sale versus completed and under construction, Brentwood Block recently started construction. So, I was going by on the SkyTrain the other day and there's a whole bunch of excavators digging up that site. So, it's not a true start, uh, on the CMHC front yet, but their progress is happening. You can see it from the train, from the street. How important is that to the prospective buyers that are coming in where, you know, there's been some, some tough headlines about receiverships and projects not moving forward, that they can come and actually see progress on the site? Is that something that buyers are talking a lot about?

Amy Chan: Absolutely. Um, I think that's paramount-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... in their decision-making, especially when it comes to pre-sale. You're not necessarily walking through a completed home, whereas a completed home, obviously it's there, right?

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: With pre-sale, it's an envisioning. You're buying into the...... future of that building. So yes, we filed BPE back in April, which is a huge milestone in, in pre-sale-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... development process. Right? That means it's progressing and there's... Y- we, we have a phase one that's about... The full entire block is about eight acres. Phase one is half of that.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: I think, I think it's safe to say that we are the largest site that's being shored if not in just Vancouver. I, I would say Toronto's kind of... Toronto's pretty hurting right now. [laughs]

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan: So I, I'm almost safe to say Canada, but might have to belt that. [laughs]

Ryan Wyse: Well, yeah, I'll, I'll go double check those numbers after. [laughs]

Amy Chan: Yeah. [laughs]. Let's bet that. Um, so yes, it plays a huge role into buyer confidence because our site is luckily located on parcel that we're showing-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... we're building on. So it's easy enough to walk them at the end of the block and see that huge pit and it's, you know, giving that further confidence for them that even if they put down a deposit, that they're gonna end up with a finished home at completion. We are saddened when we hear about receiverships.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: But there's also more color to that, behind that. You know, what happened that kind of-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... put that development in receivership. There's, you know, it's, it's easy to plaster a very blanketed statement and a hot headline like, "Duh, duh, duh going under." You know, it's not great for our industry. We want the wins for everybody because there's enough room for everybody. But now we've become, like, the outlier because we are progressing. We're moving along and we still have, you know, homes that can be bought.

Ryan Wyse: So you mentioned that, you know, with pre-sell, you're buying a vision. And I think that with a master plan community in particular, you're really buying a vision. So, uh, the first phase of a master plan, which is what you're selling right now, you can't see the other buildings in the development and that the buyer has to picture what everything is going to be. And so I think any progress that they start to see on the site can help them sort of bring that along.

Amy Chan: Yeah, 100%. I mean, I feel like I've only been in this since 2018.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: 2018 was relatively a really hot market for pre-sale as well. SoI think the elevation of the sales tools that you have to include nowadays... buyers are so much more [laughs] knowledgeable and the sales team has to be even more knowledgeable-

Ryan Wyse: For sure

Amy Chan:... and updated with their policies and any changes, like, that could affect that purchaser, be it, like, first time home buyer or all those things. You, you just have to be in the know now.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Which, I like kind of a downturn market if, you know, we're still in one. I think we're kind of getting out of it. [laughs] But I like it 'cause it weeds out the people that don't necessarily shouldn't be in it. Because buying a home is huge and you need, like, very clear guidance and correct guidance... in that purchase. So, you know, you kinda see it, like, the people that bought in 2018 that were ill-advised are kind of feeling that, you know, four years down the road. Right? We don't want that for our buyers at Brentwood.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah. You need your trusted advisor.

Amy Chan: 100%.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: And, and, like, the agents too. Right? Like, that are out there. You know, it's easy to get into a hot market. I, I mean, I got licensed in a very bad market. [laughs]

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan: Which I actually... I, I feel like played, uh, in my favor, 'cause I was... I, I had to learn. 'Cause it's, like, it was a struggle for everybody-

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm

Amy Chan: ... similar to, like, now. Right? It's, it is a little bit quieter, but with the quiet times you can lean into how you can dial up your own business, kind of fill the holes that you can't necessarily do when it's very busy. It's just changing how you look at a slow market versus, "Oh, it's doom and gloom." Right?

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Yeah.

Ryan Wyse: Awesome.

Amy Chan: Take a vacation. [laughs]

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan: Reset.

Ryan Wyse: So great. I wanna talk about, like, all of the other stuff that's impacting real estate, all of the, the macro economy stuff that is part of the reason why this year has been so counter seasonal. Uh, and I think we should start with the jobs data that came out as of recording last Friday. Last month, we talked at length about how volatile the job numbers can be month to month and we made a big point of saying, "Don't over-read into one good month's worth of jobs data," when we added 83,000 jobs in June. So here we go, we get July data and doom and gloom headlines. We lost 41,000 jobs. People were surprised. So again, we need to say, "Don't read too much into the month-to-month volatility." So one of the things I just quickly did to get ready was look at the past three months. Pre-COVID, three-month moving average was a much better way of looking at this stuff. Over the last three months, we've added an average, a monthly average of 17,000 jobs. Okay, not great. Labor force grew by about 21,000. Okay. Unemployment rate is where it was three months ago. Labor force participation down a little bit. Employment rate down a little bit. So I think it's not as dire as the July data would tell us, but it's also not great. We've got a pretty soft labor market still, and it kind of adds up to this-You know, there's still a lot of uncertainty out there. There's not a ton of hiring, and I think from an economy perspective, we still have a pretty weak labor market. And from a Bank of Canada perspective, they're still open to the potential for another interest rate cut. But as we kind of look through the Bank of Canada's last announcement on July 30th, they talked about how uncertainty is elevated, worst-case tariff scenario was avoided thankfully. And they kind of, there's a, I think a good quote from their last release I want to just throw it at you here. "If a weakening economy puts further downward pressure on inflation and the upward price pressures from the trade disruptions are contained, there may be a need for a reduction in this policy interest rate environment." So they're saying they're totally open to another cut if we need one. And I guess I want to circle back 'cause you made a comment about buyers and the Bank of Canada before. Like how much do you think a quarter point cut, if we get one in September or beyond, really matters to buyer psyche right now?

Amy Chan: I think definitely, it would trigger not a- hot market... but definitely stimulate the buyer side, for sure. Just that quarter point, like I said, it's not going to make a huge difference on your mortgage payment, but that, that confidence will be like enough for a buyer to be like, "Okay, now's the time to jump in." Because if you think about it, like we've been, how long have we been in a downturn? Like a soft kind of...

Ryan Wyse: Since rates ratcheted up in mid-2022. So-

Amy Chan: Exactly. So that buyer activity has been pent up like a dam... until now.

Ryan Wyse: Three years of a challenge market.

Amy Chan: That's insane.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah.

Amy Chan: And typically, it's funny enough, like I've seen this like a few times now, where buyers just want to jump in all at the same time. I don't know if they get together and have a meeting-

Ryan Wyse: [laughs]

Amy Chan: ... but it just, you know... And that's where that, you know, that hot market in Langley, where it just like sight unseen, you're putting in offers and you can't even like go in for a showing. Multiple offer situations. I don't think it'll necessarily get to that, but it will stimulate a lot of people off the fence, for sure.

Ryan Wyse: Okay.

Amy Chan: Pull trigger and capitalize on all those, those, you know, GST exemptions and the PTT. All that just makes it a really good environment to buy if you're a fir- if you fall into that first time.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm. So between now and the Bank of Canada's next announcement on September 17th, there's a lot of data releases. I think there's no point in making a prediction about what they do right now, other than to say they're open to it. So between now and then, we get July and August inflation. Those are obviously very important. Inflation's still a little sticky right now. More, uh, jobs data, the August jobs data, we get another GDP release. We get financial flow accounts, which has important lending and debt measures. So I think, uh, it, it would be foolish to try and predict, you know, what they're going to do when their decision is based on so many of those upcoming data releases. But I think the, the door is definitely open and they're signaling a willingness to cut maybe one or two more times more in the cycle, which there's a lot of debate about that right now. There's a lot of voices out there who think that those data releases will show that it's not as tough out there in the labor market as some think a- and we're actually already at the end of this cutting cycle. So I guess, you know, time will tell, but um, there is in some circles the, a thought that they won't cut at all and this is what, you know, where rates are going to be for the foreseeable future. So if, you know, that has an impact on buyer psyche too, then...

Amy Chan: I also feel like if, if they didn't cut the rates, we've had to hold two, three times now.

Ryan Wyse: Three times now, yeah.

Amy Chan: Three times. So at some point, you just kind of, it's normalized, you know?

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Like it's just kind of the thing. Just like how Trump is tariff this, tariff that. Like we're almost numb.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah.

Amy Chan: And then you just have to continue based on like what, what your buying needs are. Like do you need to buy? Then you don't have the time on the s- on your side.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Right? If you have time to wait, you're living with your parents or you're renting, you know, you could just wait it out, right? But I feel like after three holds, you're kind of accustomed to that being the baseline now.

 Ryan Wyse: Yeah, and I think... So like fixed mortgage rates have mostly held up. They've moved a little bit. Bond yields went up for a while, they've come back down. But I think, you know, sort of the low fours, high threes is where we can expect fixed mortgage rates to be for the, the next little while. So part of that comes with, or certainty comes with that a little bit, I think as well, which I think the general public is craving a little bit of certainty right now. Knowing where things will be in one, three, six months is something I think we'd all like a little bit more of. And we've seen, if you look at Conference Board of Canada data, consumer confidence bottomed out in April, in the middle of all the Liberation Day nonsense. And it's been steadily rising since then. So we've had both in Canada and here in BC a few consecutive months now of rise in consumer confidence. So there are, you know, some signs that consumers are either okay with where things are headed or just feeling like, "Okay, we avoided that worst-case scenario." And even if we have some tariffs that... You know, Canada's effective tariff rate is really quite low because of the CUSMA exemptions. And so people are feeling marginally a little bit better, and so, you know, we'll see as we head into fall whether this is-... the beginning of a busier market or whether seasonality is completely out the window and we don't have a big fall market. I mean, time will tell. Here we are, it's middle August as of recording. Summer's almost over, um, but again there's, there's a lot of economic data to come that I think will inform, you know, where we go from here, how much of an impact some of the tariffs, and for us, counter-tariffs have had. There's also an, you know, on the US side, there's a lot of CPI data coming out. There's some, a release tomorrow as of recording, um, that will show, probably will show tariff impacts on US inflation. So w- we're entering a pretty interesting time on that front, and I think we'll see, you know, we'll get a lot more clarity on, on some of those impacts over the next little bit. And that will give us some more clarity on where the Bank of Canada will go in September and beyond. Okay, so we have a recurring segment we like to do. We call it Beneath the Headline, where we cherry pick a real estate-related headline that we think could use probably a little bit more context. So, I want to read a headline for you, Amy. Bank of Canada offers no lifeboats for drowning mortgagers, and this article is all about the Bank of Canada interest rate hold on July 30th, and it's a big discussion on where rates are going and how they're probably not going to move very much. Even if the Bank of Canada cuts, it will only be a little bit, which I agree with, and it's a decent analysis on rates. But the, the headline is all about drowning mortgagers, which kind of, uh, is a pretty broad brush to paint with.

⁠Amy Chan: Yeah. No, I agree. It's, it's kind of reiterating that mob mentality of the flashy headline that's like fearmongering.

People are just interesting in their psyche of what they gravitate to in terms of news. Because I typically don't really watch the news anymore 'cause it's very doom and gloom. It's only reporting the lows. Very few times you'll have a headline with, like, some wins or the highs.

 Ryan Wyse: Um, so the, the article itself, like, is a pretty reasonable take on interest rates, but this drowning mortgages part, uh, like we just talked about how high inventory is, how many would-be sellers there are. They're not, um, slashing prices to sell their homes. It- prices have generally held up because sellers aren't particularly distressed right now. The mortgage arrears rate in Canada is still 0.22%, not 0.2. Yeah. Mortgagers, while, you know, there's a lot of renewals coming up, uh, again, last month we talked a bit about that, um, but generally, people can afford their renewals. So yeah. You know, there are some tough mortgage payments out there and some people renewing at, at higher rates, but two-thirds of Canadian borrowers have fixed-rate mortgages, so a Bank of Canada interest rate decision doesn't directly affect them anyway.

Amy Chan: Exactly.

Ryan Wyse: Only a renewal. So all in all, it was a pretty decent article with, in my opinion, a, a poor headline choice. [laughs]

Amy Chan: Yeah. 

Ryan Wyse: Okay, so the last one we have, we have a listener question. I believe Lee from Langley has a question for us.

 Listener Question: Hey, Ryan. This is Lee from Langley. I know summer's usually a quieter time for real estate, but with interest rates holding and more listings on the market, do you think this could actually be a good time for buyers to make a move before things pick up again in the fall?

Ryan Wyse: Ooh, great question. Amy, why don't you take that?

Amy Chan: Yeah. I mean, um, to answer Lee's question, 100%. It is such a buyer's market. If you are in that position, you have a plethora of inventory. Timing is on your side. You're not pressed and competing with other buyers. Pricing has leaned off a little bit, and sometimes you might find that little jewel that's, you know, priced below because of whatever their certain situation:... of why they're selling. So you could, you know, there are deals to be had.

Ryan Wyse: Yeah, and there's certainly a lot of inventory out there. There's less competition, although sales have picked up marginally. So yeah, I think there are, like, to your point, a lot of opportunities. And for somebody who's, you know, been thinking about this for a while, if you have all your ducks in a row, you have your, your preapproval, you know what your f- what your financing capabilities are, you know what you can afford, um, there's a much easier buying experience out there right now than when the market's in a total frenzy.

Amy Chan: I think it's all about the buying experience, too.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: Like when you're not in a hot market, you're not making rash decisions based on timing and you're competing, which elevates that, that, um, experience for you, because nobody wants to lose in a multiple. You know, at the same time, you don't want to overpay.

Ryan Wyse: Mm-hmm.

Amy Chan: So y- the timing's on your side, and just the choices. You have so much more choices.

Ryan Wyse: Absolutely.

Amy Chan: So yeah, I absolutely think it's a, the best time to get into the market.

Ryan Wyse: And with, and with that, um, thanks so much for everything today. Really appreciate the conversation, and if anyone listening, uh, wanted to get in touch with you, how can they do that?

Amy Chan: Yeah, you can get in touch with me. I'm @brentwoodblockbygrovner, or you can send me an email at achan@rennie.com.

Ryan Wyse: Awesome. Thanks so much for your time today.

Amy Chan: Thanks for having me.

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