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Latest from the brief
The Numbers
The five-year Government of Canada benchmark bond yield fell to 3.62% on October 1, down from 3.69% a few days earlier. Fixed mortgage pricing tracks this closely, so a buyer locking in this week should see slightly better offers than one who shopped two weeks ago.
Rates & Money
Statistics Canada's New Housing Price Index for the total of house and land came in at 120.4 for August, down from 120.5 in July and 120.6 in June. It's a slow bleed rather than a drop, but it's now three straight months in the wrong direction for builders pricing new construction.
The Market
Seasonally adjusted annual housing starts came in at 229,046 in August, down from 229,360 in July and 240,486 in June. That's the third consecutive monthly decline, and it matters for listing conversations about future supply in markets where buyers are already waiting out prices.
The Market
Inventory in Victoria is outpacing September sales, enough that local coverage is calling the shift into buyer's market territory. Agents with sellers still pricing off spring comparables should have that conversation before the listing sits.
The Playbook
One brokerage team paired an AI assistant with their existing contact list rather than buying new leads, and it started surfacing missed calls and old referrals sitting dormant in the CRM. The lesson for a smaller team isn't the tool itself, it's that most pipelines have a sleeping database nobody's worked in months.
The Playbook
Real Estate Magazine's negotiation column makes the point that a correct price doesn't guarantee agreement, because what a number means to a seller isn't always financial. Worth remembering before re-running the comps instead of asking what the seller is actually protecting.