Home Values Hang on Immigration's Invisible Threads

Anyone who cares about property values needs to care about population values. When household formation outpaces housing formation, real estate markets fly as high as a kite, and vice versa.

Since the Liberals announced their non-permanent resident (NPR) cutbacks in March, it's thrown population growth estimates into chaos. Now we're all playing 'Guess the Population' like it's the Price is Right.

Come fall, the government will drop its final NPR estimates. The Immigration Minister's stated goal is to limit temporary residents to 5% of the population by 2027. That's got every Tom, Dick, and Housing Analyst playing fortune-teller with Canada's headcount.

To cut through the noise, we spoke with economist Tony Stillo from Oxford Economics on Tuesday. He shared new insights from his recent paper, which concluded that: