Market Updates From Vancouver to Halifax

[00:00:12] Welcome to another exciting episode where we dive deep into Canada's dynamic real estate landscape. Today we're going to unpack some fresh insights from RBC's latest housing market reports and share perspectives from our network of real estate professionals who host our meetups across the country.

[00:00:30] From surging listings in major markets to regional performance variations, we'll explore why there's growing optimism in the industry despite ongoing challenges. Plus, we're going to break down what the anticipated interest rate changes mean for both buyers and sellers this year. So get ready for a data rich discussion as always that will help you understand where Canadian real estate markets are headed.

[00:00:56] Yeah, I think that you know to start this off, I saw a surprising amount of optimism from our meetup hosts. I saw you know and to be fair most of them are real estate professionals. So, you know, you would expect that I think they would typically be a bit more biased optimistic than pessimistic, but also a lot of optimism coming from the banks and their economists which has been more surprising to me.

[00:01:18] Most markets are feeling less uncertain and maybe the tariffs which we just did an episode on could have changed that like most of this analysis comes before the tariff Hail Mary kind of hopped in here. And I think that it's funny because I think I think I think I think I'm starting to notice my own bias talking about bias because the GTA is so messed up and I think that, you know, like, you know, you've got 905 really suffering 416 kind of doing okay. Condos are like just a bloodbath.

[00:01:45] And so I, I find it like I'm almost confused when people are in it or when people are optimistic, you know, so anyway, let's get into it. Yeah. Okay. So let's look at some key takeaways here. This is from RBC sellers set the tone in Canada's housing markets as 2025 rolls in. There's been a surge in new listings, right? Major Canadian markets, including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal saw significant increases in listings.

[00:02:15] Throughout January with Vancouver experiencing a 40% boost from December. Now transaction activity rebounded in January across multiple cities indicating there might be a bit of an ongoing market recovery happening, though this could be affected by potential trade and tariff uncertainties, as you just mentioned, Dan.

[00:02:36] Now let's talk about price. There's been limited price appreciation and, and there's not really much anticipated price appreciation either here for, for probably the remainder of the year with the MLS home price index showing minimal changes across major cities in the country here in, in the month of January.

[00:02:55] However, there are regional variations. Montreal shows strong price appreciation, 10% alone for single families where Toronto's condo prices are declining, right? We're down over 3% year over year. And that demonstrates significant regional differences. And of course we're going to see differences. And of course, we're going to see differences in not only geographical areas, but asset classes, right? Comparing a single family home in Montreal to a condo in Toronto, two different worlds. And that seems to be the story of Canadian real estate. It kind of seems to be the theme.

[00:03:25] So let's talk about inventory. There's a lot of markets that are seeing improved inventory levels, Toronto reaching its highest number of active listenings, sorry, listings, not listenings. You're just trying to give a, I'm trying to manifest more listeners for us here. Active listeners, yeah. It's a little gorilla marketing there. I like it. And that is more active listings since 2009. So been a long time since we've seen this much action in the GTA.

[00:03:53] Great year for, another great year for real estate. Yeah. And then back over to Montreal, it remains tight there with inventory actually shrinking to levels kind of, of, of mid 2024. Yeah. And so that was their, their kind of supply side analysis. And there's another report that they put out called the RBC housing market outlook. I think they do it on a, on a monthly basis, kind of using Korea's data.

[00:04:20] The Canadian real estate associations data is not out yet. This is Monday, February 17th. And so that's why we're not using theirs because it's typically comes in a couple of days after the 15th, but the 15th fell on a weekend and blah, blah, blah. So we'll get it done, but it won't be with our meetup post this month. So RBC is expecting a national recovery in the housing market, about a 12% increase in new resale transactions. Please don't think that I just said 12% increase in price because I didn't.

[00:04:49] To 550,000 units in 2025, which is kind of back to your pre pandemic normal levels with a modest price growth of 1.4% nationally, which keep in mind is below inflation. So your real house price is actually decreasing. Just a heads up. I always have to give you the, whatever the opposite of a silver lining is. That's what I, that's what I do. Usually when there's a good data point, I just tear, tear it right out from your hands.

[00:05:14] And, you know, interest rate impacts, obviously they're going to reduce home ownership costs and create a little bit of demand. There are some regional variations forming Alberta and Quebec. And we're going to get into that a little bit further, but they're showing strong momentum with projected price increases of 4.1 and 3.9% respectively.

[00:05:32] While Ontario and BC are expecting more modest, modest growth of below 1%. Obviously affordability, reduced immigration targets and economic uncertainty could limit price growth and market confidence. And the Toronto condo market, again, getting a, getting a, uh, some attention from pretty much everybody now faces potential price softness due to increased supply from record new completions and obviously decreased investor demand due to cashflow and falling rents.

[00:06:01] So not a super optimistic picture for Toronto, but probably far more optimistic for the rest of the country. So that's what RBC feels is going to take place. It seems to be like a tale. I don't need a tale of two cities doesn't work because it's basically Toronto is the only city versus everything else, which is seemingly not horrible in, in Canada. But when you look at the Toronto condo market, I feel like that's how Toronto sees Canada though. It's like Toronto and the rest of Canada.

[00:06:30] And then the rest of Canada also sees Canada like that. They're like, it's us. And then there's Toronto, you know? Yeah. They not like us. Uh, and that's no dig at Drake. I stay at a wrap. Isn't that they don't like us, I think is what you meant to say. Okay. So before we jump over to the host portion, uh, Dan, let's just quickly run through some of these regional highlights. Let's go all the way West to the beautiful province of British Columbia,

[00:06:55] where RBC expects that the market is going to regain its footing this year with resales rebounding 16 and a half percent to 86,000 units. This would come on the heels of two quiet years when resales average less than 74,000 units. So decent increase there. Uh, the bank sees affordability issues, keeping prices largely flat, edging up just less than a full point from 2024.

[00:07:21] So little bit of good news for my friends out in BC. Dan, talk to me about Alberta. Alberta had the, you know, the markets have sustained the huge pickup and activity and solid price growth from 2024. And RBC expects us to continue for the most part of 2025. The bank forecasts, Alberta resales to rise 4.8% to 87,000 units and home prices to appreciate 4.1%, which is interesting.

[00:07:51] Cause I felt like Calgary kind of had tapped out. So it's interesting to see that take. Yeah. And Saskatchewan isn't all that different. RBC expects solid momentum to persist. The banks, uh, projects that the number of resale transactions will climb to almost 7%, about 14,400 units. And this would be close to an all time high that was reached back in 2021 of 17,500.

[00:08:18] RBC expects the price index benchmark to raise, uh, itself about 3% leveling out, uh, for an average price of about 370,000. Manitoba, the recovery from their correction in 22, 23 is, looks like it's in full swing. Now RBC believes it'll remain this way in 2025.

[00:08:39] Their forecast has resales growing a further 9% to 17,000 units and prices appreciating just over 3% in 2025. Now back to Ontario where the road. You can call it on terrible at this point. On terrible. Yes, indeed. The remote Ontario. The road ahead remains bumpy.

[00:09:01] RBC, uh, believes the lower interest rates will keep the market on the recovery course, but, ah, you know, it won't be as easy as some of the other provinces. The bank forecast of the home resales, uh, will advance up to almost 13% to 204,000 units, uh, still 7% below the average in the three years prior to the pandemic. So we're not back how we used to be just yet, right? We're still fit in three years before the pandemic.

[00:09:31] That's almost a decade ago at this point. Let me be very clear about that. So not been a great decade, uh, here in Ontario. RBC expects that the generally balanced market conditions and continued affordability challenges, uh, will contain price increases, uh, subdued to less than 1%. Toronto area condo prices could still lose further value in the face of a growing, uh, problem with inventory and units for sale.

[00:10:00] And man, I can tell you, there are a ton of condos listed for both for sale and for rent, and just not that many people buying or renting them in Toronto. So the, uh, condos are like, this is how bad condos are. Condos are so bad that I'm actually looking at, at condos. Literally, Danny. I mean, I'm not, I'm not yet, but like, you know, in the next two years I might consider. You've sent me some condos being like, we should buy this. I'm like, I never thought ever that you'd want to buy a condo. Well, here we go.

[00:10:29] Anyways, take me to a better market. Let's head one province east end. What is going on with our friends in Quebec? Quebec activity picked up solidly over the second half of 2024 and RBC expects us to continue in 25. And it seems like from our hosts, that is the case. It seems like a pretty strong market, but not out of control. The bank is projecting resales to increase by almost 20% to over a hundred thousand units following a 19% advance in 2024.

[00:10:57] RBC sees prices rising almost 4% ranking Quebec as one of the stronger gainers, almost as high as Alberta there among provincial markets. And then finish us off with Atlantic Canada, Nick. My pleasure. Well, the bank projects that home resales growth will accelerate in places like New Brunswick up over 10% to 10,500 units. In Nova Scotia, up almost 12% to 12,400 units.

[00:11:24] But will remain largely unchanged in Prince Edward Island, kind of 5%, 2,100 units. And ease slightly in Newfoundland and Labrador, up 3.5%. The projection also has prices continuing to appreciate in 2025 in all of the Atlantic provinces. But of course, at a slower rate, a more reasonable rate, if you will, ranging from about 1.5% in PEI to about just over 4% in Newfoundland.

[00:11:54] So you have heard enough from us. Dan, let's switch over and bring in our amazing hosts who are going to tell us all about what is actually going on on the ground, boots on the ground across the country. And if you like what you hear from these hosts, make sure you check the link in the show notes to join a meetup because they are all the hosts of our meetups across the country. We have over 5,000 members in our meetup community now and we would love for you to join it.

[00:12:21] Okay, I'm joined here by some of the best and brightest minds in Canadian real estate coast to coast. And we are going to do a quick recap on the meetups that took place the second Tuesday of February and the second Tuesday of every month, typically, although there are some outlier dates, the odd time. We had a very exciting month with the addition of a couple of new meetups and lots to talk about.

[00:12:42] And I would say, you know, on a city by city basis, I'm actually really curious to get the answer to this question today because I think that the, you know, some cities are much more heavily exposed to tariffs. The threat of tariffs, I guess, is going to be the question for today. And so we want to get an understanding for how your market is responding to those things. So we're going to start off with, we're going to start off in Montreal with Thierry. And Thierry, can you give us an understanding?

[00:13:08] Well, first, let us know who you are, what you do, how your meetup was, and then give us an understanding of how the Montreal market seems to be when you're thinking about what's happening with tariffs and just kind of looming economic uncertainty. Well, guys, I'm really glad to join you today. So my name is Thierry. I'm a property manager here in Montreal. What we saw yesterday at the meetup was quite interesting. We had over 50 people showing up, a couple of newer investors, a realtor, some mortgage brokers. So it was interesting.

[00:13:36] A good mix with people with more experience, people like looking to get in also the real estate. On our market, what we saw a lot this January, last January, actually, was the total sale was up 36%. So it was quite interesting. Medium price for single family was plus 11%. Condos and multifamily was up 8%. So I think people that were waiting on the sidelines start to get in.

[00:14:03] We also saw multiple offers coming back. So about 30% of the transactions were on multiple offers. I wouldn't say go too high, but it was kind of controlled multiple offers. If the interests keep going down, we think we're going to see this trend continue. Montreal is a market where it's quite interesting to invest. The sentiment yesterday, we talked a little bit about the tariff,

[00:14:27] and it was mostly that people will be maybe looking really for a deal that they can bring value to, to make sure that they get a good investment. And for the moment, for the next probably couple of months or weeks, we're going to just maybe look a little bit more and be very attentive to what's going on. Awesome. Thanks a lot, Thierry. I know we discussed this in one of our tariff episodes. I think especially with the adjustments to the tariffs being a lot of steel and aluminum. I know Quebec, the market has a lot of aluminum manufacturing in the industry there.

[00:14:56] So there could be some exposure in that regard. Steel, probably you would see a lot more in Hamilton, which I'm sure we'll hear from our friends out there. Okay, let's jump over to Calgary. I guess Calgary and Edmonton. We got Brennan, who is hosting now two meetups. Brennan, how did the meetups go out in Alberta there? And what seems to be the sentiment in regards to tariffs and their impact on the market in Alberta specifically? Hey, I'm Brennan Holawadi.

[00:15:24] I'm with Cash and Homes, a wholesaling company here in Alberta, currently operating in Edmonton and Calgary. And we're also hosting the meetups in Edmonton and Calgary. I went to the Calgary meetup last night. It was very exciting. There was over 50 people there. The Edmonton meetup, we had about 15 people. We're just building some traction there. It still seems to be lots of excitement from the investor side. There was definitely a good mix of your brokers, builders,

[00:15:52] just buy and hold investors, fix and flip investors. And yeah, everyone seemed to be very excited about this year. So it's been interesting winter. But now, to answer your question, Dan, with the tariffs and uncertainty, that actually is the favorite word of the year so far is the word uncertainty. So it's still bullish. Guys are still looking at the future as bright. Builders, specifically, I've noticed I talk to a lot of investors.

[00:16:22] And I really try to separate them into two groups, the fix and flip investors versus the builders. And builders are definitely a little more conservative. They're careful on their offerings. They're making sure that they really get the good buy prices. And I've actually had a lot of builders asking me for flips. So guys are thinking a little bit short term here. I think they just don't want to expose themselves to a long term risks. So that's what I'm seeing so far. I'm very much in the off market space.

[00:16:50] As for on market, I do know that we have been down about 20% for January year over year in sales. So definitely a slowdown in January. But having said that, last year, I would say it was an early spring market. So maybe it's not the greatest comparable. But tariffs definitely are having some sort of impact. But we'll see how that progresses in the future here. Awesome. Thanks, Brendan. I guess we'll jump over to James and Jack in Victoria.

[00:17:20] How was your meetup? You guys just launched. And do the tariffs seem to be having any impact on sentiment in your market? Yeah, thanks for having us. Super excited about what's happening here on Vancouver Island. We're grateful to be part of this being in Victoria. In terms of our meetup, we had about nine people come through, which is a pretty good turnout first go. We're hoping next time we'll have over 20 plus. We'll pump it up and keep it going. In terms of uncertainty, we have a lot of certainty here on Vancouver Island

[00:17:50] in terms of people want to be here. So fortunately for us, I'm a real estate agent with Victoria Homes Group and Remax Generation, we have an abundance of people wanting to come to Vancouver Island just based on temperature and climate alone. It's a great place to live. So we're dealing with a lot more activity in the market. And we're super excited to help people get into the market here. I'll introduce you to James Wilkinson. He is a real estate agent on my team. So James, you can take it from here. Yeah. Hey guys.

[00:18:18] It was great to have the first meetup going. A lot of conversation about investing in rentals. There's basically a lot of developers have incentive right now to build rentals, which is making it harder for smaller investors to actually make any profit with the cost of everything going on. The market here in Victoria, I guess over last year in January, we're probably up 1% for single detached homes, about even for condos, but we're hitting the spring market.

[00:18:47] And as interest rates continue to fall, we expect things to heat up here. So the tariffs aren't really taking effect here. A lot of that economic stuff for tariffs doesn't really affect Victoria per se, as we're mostly a tech town, retirement town. So we haven't seen much effect of that sort. Awesome. Excellent insight, James. I appreciate it. Let's jump over to Josh in Hamilton, which I mean, from my perspective,

[00:19:16] probably the most high risk from a steel tariff perspective. So I'm really curious to get your take. I mean, I've kind of seen like at least in the GTA, and I was at the Berry meetup last night with Aiden, our new host there. And it seems like February have been slow comparatively for the GTA. And I think people just tend to kind of do that. They hit the pause button in these markets. Are you seeing the same thing out in Hamilton, Josh? First of all, how was your meetup? And then who are you? What do you do? How was your meetup? And what's going on out there?

[00:19:44] My name's Josh Finlay, owner of Bill Financial. I co-owner of Bill Financial. We help midsize investors, developers, purchase, acquire, stabilize, construct, multifamily developments. The meetup in Hamilton was good. We had a bunch of new faces, a bunch of old faces. We had about 15 people come out. We did switch to Merit Brewing just because our current location just isn't open during the summer. So we're going to be going back to collective arts later on in the year when it does get a little bit nicer out.

[00:20:12] The talk was a little bit of both. I mean, there's definitely some sentiment change in the market in regards to the tariffs. You know, we were talking about how that's going to ripple through the city. A lot of the industry in Hamilton in and of itself is focused on DeFasco. And I think there's rumblings already of people losing their jobs.

[00:20:35] So we expect, obviously, you know, investments to slow down in that area and probably them to be hit the hardest. We saw a handful of different types of people. We saw realtors and industry partners, retail investors, developers, some tiny home developers. And a lot of the conversation was, how do I make what I currently have better? So instead of taking risk on really what they're going to go out and buy, they're trying to see, well, how do I increase density?

[00:21:02] How do I use new laws and regulations to be able to increase the efficiency of my buildings, taking on a little bit less risk overall? And in regards to the bigger guys, the tariffs in and of themselves are really advantageous to guys who are using CMHC debt or anything that is going to be pegged on the bond yields. You know, if these tariffs do come into effect, you know, driving bond yields down, which are good for anybody who's taking long term insured debt.

[00:21:27] So there's some people who, depending on where you're at in the process, are kind of holding their breath, hoping that rates come down a little bit. If we do foresee these tariffs coming in, the anticipation is the Bank of Canada is going to cut rates more aggressively than anticipated, which will cause some relief.

[00:21:43] So we're starting to see more investors really dive into monetary policy and what's going to happen after these tariffs come into effect, because people are going to start making decisions based off of the next five steps instead of what's happening right now. Thanks, Josh. I guess we'll head a little bit north up to Kitchener-Waterloo with Nicholas Brown. How was the Kitchener-Waterloo meetup? It looks like we lost Zach here on the feed, but how was your meetup and how does the market seem to be responding to the economic uncertainty?

[00:22:13] Sure. Yeah. Our meetup was good yesterday. It started slow and then I think we had like 20 to 25 people. Nice thing about here is that it's a wide variety, kind of like what Josh said there. So, you know, we had some developers, a lot of realtors always show up. The nice thing is they're usually developers themselves as well. A lot of first time condo investors as well. So it's a good mix of conversation. You know, in terms of the uncertainty here, what we've been seeing. So one of my bigger developers just finished, you know, funding a CMHC mortgage, pretty large one.

[00:22:42] And the next conversation I had two days later with them was looking at doing multiple kind of missing middle 15 units and then kind of taking those, amalgamating the courts after they're done and then turning them into one CMHC takeout. So from our side, you know, I usually advise clients control what you can control. So I've been just telling them control the costs in your projects going forward. There's not much more you can do and run affordable numbers on rents. We've been seeing rents come down across the nation, I would say.

[00:23:10] And, you know, projects we've underwritten a year ago are $200, $300 less per month. So we've been going back to clients and having them, you know, reduce it, rerun underwriting and things like that. So specifically here, I'm working on two projects here in Kitchener that are both, I think, one's 10, one's 12. And it's basically around that sentiment. Like the dollar is becoming weaker right now. Obviously, the tariffs are scaring people. We saw a dip in the GOC and CMB, which, you know, to an insured point, it makes sense.

[00:23:36] I do think I hope we don't get to a point that we flip into having to cut rates more aggressively and stick with kind of what the analysts have been saying. But overall on projects, I've just been, like I said, control the things you can control. You know, we're not in Parliament, so there's not a whole lot we can do about that. Let's just make sure the projects are a good project, run the numbers, be certain on the numbers, and the takeout will be there. So we're keeping it to, you know, that kind of quick point. And as much as you can do, just control your own costs. That's what I'd say. Awesome.

[00:24:05] Next up here to discuss, Serge, how was your meetup? Tell us what you do and what's the sentiment like there? Yeah. So Serge Papino, host of the Ottawa Meetup. I'm a realtor here with Real Broker. Meetup was good. We had about 20 people show up. Good mix of industry partners. A lot of, you know, would be first-time buyer, first-time investors, and then some more seasoned investors in the mix as well. As far as our market, you know, things are moving well in Ottawa, especially in the freehold space.

[00:24:35] January is pretty strong. Transaction volume is a little low, but we've seen prices tick up here ever since the second half of last year. Inventory remains really low. Quality products generally selling within a week of hitting the market, again, especially in the freehold space. In terms of the tariffs, there's not a whole lot of – I mean, there's the usual uncertainty that you're always going to have. But, you know, Ottawa is pretty well insulated from the tariffs. You know, we're mostly a government town.

[00:25:01] I would tell you that, if anything, the upcoming federal elections having more of an impact here. There's this notion that with the change of government, we're going to see pretty massive cuts to the federal public service. So I think people here are much more worried about what that could mean for the market than they are the tariffs. Thanks, Serge. I'm going to jump over to – we'll go to Brandon Medallo Properties in Niagara, and then we'll try and get Mike back after. Yeah, hey, everybody. We hosted our first event in the Niagara region.

[00:25:31] Specifically, we were hosting in St. Catharines. We had a good turnout. It was about 12, 13 people, and we hope to keep that momentum growing. It was a mix of developers, contractors, first-time investors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers. So a good mix of people that had the conversation flowing throughout. And I'd say that the sentiment is pretty positive. Even for the first-time investors, they're looking at it as a long-term play.

[00:25:59] If you look at St. Catharines right now, there's the government grants up to 80K for additional dwelling units that people are really excited about. And some people were talking about even severing land and their experience with that or starting to get that conversation going as well. So lots of excitement there. I did forget to mention what we do. We're big financial literacy advocates. We are taking the guesswork out of building wealth through various services like fractional CFO, mortgages, and even mentorship and coaching.

[00:26:29] Carol had lost her voice after talking so much last night, so I don't know if there's anything she wants to add there. Yeah, in terms of the sentiment around the tariffs, I'm a CFO for – sorry, I offer services to different companies in the Niagara region. I don't know if you can hear me. A lot of them are subsidiaries of U.S. companies, and they're constantly assessing what the different costs of using different mills are. They have a lot of different mills across the U.S. and Canada.

[00:26:53] And so I think right now they're kind of in a hole-cote to see how long these tariffs are in place for and the effect on the employees there. But overall, they're constantly changing where the steel is coming from in terms of the different mills. So I think it's going to be the smaller companies that are going to get more affected because, again, a lot of the steel companies in Hamilton are owned by the U.S. anyway. So they just end up reallocating where the steel comes from. They have different mills, like hundreds of mills, literally all across Canada and the U.S.

[00:27:21] So they just, again, switch the locations of that in order to have a minimal impact on their costs. Thanks, Carol. Sorry, yeah, my feed keeps cutting out. But I appreciate the effort because it sounded like it was challenging to deliver, but the insight was great. Let's jump over to Cam Brio. And Cam, are you here? I don't have your video. Yeah, yeah. Major tech problems. How was your meetup?

[00:27:47] What does the sentiment seem to be like in your market in regards to the economic uncertainty and tariffs? Great. We had a good turnout last night. I'm Cameron Brio, Moncton, New Brunswick. A lot of people are not really talking about tariffs, more so about just deals penciling out. Folks that came out last night are really interested to see what's going to come in the spring market. It sounds like there's a lot of folks that are out there chasing land, trying to secure deals for long-term possibilities.

[00:28:16] Talking about tariffs, though, outside of the meetups, yeah, a lot of people are concerned about what the impacts on cost of construction could be long-term. Awesome. Thanks, Cam. I guess we'll stay in the East Coast. We'll head over to Zach. Zach, who are you? What do you do? And how was your meetup? And what does the sentiment seem to be like on tariffs and their impact on the real estate market? Yeah, thanks, Dan. Zach Denny from Charlottetown PEI. And I'm a realtor with Royal LePage and also organized the PEI meetup. We had a good little meetup last night.

[00:28:45] It was a smaller turnout. But sometimes that's kind of nice for it to be intimate. We seem to be talking a lot about AI and how each of us from realtors to investors, people in construction have been using AI to make our jobs a little bit better. In terms of the sentiment and the tariffs, I probably would have thought, based on how much people are talking about it, that the tariffs would have an impact on our housing market. And who knows? Maybe it's a little bit too soon to tell.

[00:29:13] But based on the numbers we're seeing, our market's roaring into the spring market early. We're up 8% year over year from last year in terms of sales and 7% in terms of or 5% in terms of pricing. And then we're still under the five-year average a little bit. But in comparison to two slow years on PEI, this one seems to be just really picking up steam. Interesting. Appreciate it, Zach. We'll stay in the East Coast. Jump over to Ryan.

[00:29:42] Ryan, how's it going, Ryan? How was your meetup? How does it feel in your market right now? Yeah, thanks, Dan. Ryan McNeil with Keystone Mortgage Investment Corporation, private lender out here in Atlantic. Last night was awesome. Had a great turnout, about 25 total. Feels like an ideal number, that 25 to 30, which was better than we've had the last couple months. Very much a mix of due and returning realtors, brokers, property managers, aspiring some experienced real estate investors as well.

[00:30:11] Also made for some good conversation. Honestly, the realtors in the room were buzzing about how strong January was here, which was kind of cool to hear. Sales were up 6% and home prices up about 7%. So a pretty decent start to the year. And I'd say cautious optimism that we're headed for like a strong spring market despite the political turmoil, especially on the single family side. We're super bullish there.

[00:30:37] And I'd say it's a bit more cautious around new home construction with tariffs threatening price increases there. And with multifamily as well, just with rents likely facing some downward pressure this year in Nova Scotia and Atlanta, Canada. Appreciate that, Ryan. And I think last but not least, we'll head over to Vancouver with Jessica. How was the turnout in Vancouver? And what does the sentiment seem to be like in the market around economic uncertainty and tariffs?

[00:31:06] The turnout yesterday was good. We had about 30 people. It was about less than we expected. I think just venue change perhaps had a smaller turnout. And it was a good group. It was not our typical. We've been seeing a lot of familiar faces. And I think last night we saw a lot of new faces, a lot of architects, a lot of people in trades, and a lot of people that aren't actually investing.

[00:31:36] And they're just coming out to learn and wanted to hear a little bit more. Overall, I think sentiment about... Honestly, there wasn't too much conversation about tariffs during the meetup. But I think outside of the meetup, a lot of buyers, we've kind of seen a lot of optimism about rates coming down and hopefully affordability picking up. And maybe more inventory in the spring market.

[00:31:57] And then for clients who are homeowners, investors, I think a little bit more cautious about their rental properties. And with the rental market being a little bit more competitive and rents coming down, I think there's a little bit of concerns there. And tenants perhaps not having the stability with their jobs and maybe job losses coming up.

[00:32:21] So a little bit of both that we're seeing, like optimism as well as people that are a little bit spooked. But yeah, last night overall, I would say pretty good group, good conversations about investments across Canada. And yeah. Amazing. Thanks, Jess. I guess that concludes this month's check-in with our meetup posts. As always, I highly recommend you reach out to these wonderful folks.

[00:32:48] You can usually find them sharing stories that we'll share on our social media. Myself, Nick, and the podcast channels across all social medias. Or just head out to a meetup second Tuesday of every month and meet them and meet other people in the real estate space in your market. As you can tell, most of these meetups are growing. Even some of the newer ones are starting with 20-plus people. And a lot of the ones, the more established ones are hitting 50-plus members.

[00:33:15] And so there's a deep network out there for you to find. And I would highly recommend getting out there. That's been one of the biggest things that we've seen investors able to kind of grow their portfolio, their career path, their future potential. As well as real estate professionals is just getting out and kind of getting belly to belly and deepening your network. And honestly, one of the worst parts about Canada, especially in the winter, is there's not a lot of social stuff going on. So it's really nice just to get out and see people in the industry. So thanks a lot, everyone. I really appreciate the work that you do to put these together.

[00:33:45] It doesn't go unnoticed. And I hope more of our listeners start to attend for you. The content of this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a qualified professional for advice tailored to your unique circumstances. The views expressed are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of affiliated organizations. Daniel Foch is a real estate broker licensed with Valerie Real Estate Inc.

[00:34:13] Website is Valerie.ca, V-A-L-E-R-Y.ca. And a member of the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Ontario Real Estate Association, and the Toronto Real Estate Board. Nick Hill is a mortgage agent and partner at OWL. Mortgage license number 10317. Agent license M21004037. Agent license M210037.