
The first BC Real Estate Market Forecast for 2021 has now been released by the BC Real Estate Association.
After an unprecedented and often surprising performance in 2020, the provincial housing market is set up for a very strong year in 2021. As the BC economy emerges from recession and COVID-19 immunizations progress, we anticipate a flood of consumption spending into the economy as confidence grows. That spending, along with the resumption of major capital projects, improving global trade and normalized immigration, will propel BC economic growth to its best showing in years and provide a boost to the recovery of the BC labour market.
Strong underlying demand will be further boosted by Canadian mortgage rates that were driven to a new record low as the Bank of Canada focused its program of quantitative easing (QE) at the middle of the Canadian yield curve. With the Bank buying $4 billion in 5- and 10-year bonds per week, the benchmark 5-year Government of Canada bond fell to as low 0.30...