ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
Steve Saretsky
Steve Saretsky is a Vancouver residential Realtor and author behind one of Vancouver’s most popular real estate blogs, Vancity Condo Guide. Steve is widely considered a thought leader in the industry with regular appearances on BNN, CBC, CKNW, CTV and as a contributor to BC Business Magazine. Steve provides advisory services to banks, hedge funds, developers, and various types of investors.
April 13th, 2026 | Shortages Create Gluts
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As we have highlighted previously, the rental market is undergoing a significant correction, and it appears poised to continue. The city of Vancouver saw 2300 purpose-built rental units completed in 2025, the highest in four decades! Source: Daily Hive Keep in mind this is completions. We still have a pipeline full of […]
April 6th, 2026 | A Little Less
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Last week we wrote a piece titled ‘Vulture Funds’ in which we highlighted the quasi bailout of the construction industry via sweeping policy changes from the Ontario government and the federal government. The immediate removal of the HST tax, the taxpayer backed vulture fund used to acquire unsold condos, and now the […]
March 30th, 2026 | Vulture Funds
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! For the past several years this newsletter has highlighted the slow motion trainwreck that is the new condo market. The math on pre-sales hasn’t worked for a long time. Quite simply, the cost to deliver new supply was well above the resale market. The gap grew ever larger but the market didn’t […]
March 23rd, 2026 | Inflation Fighters?
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As expected, the Bank of Canada held rates this past week. However, what caught our attention was the Banks dovish commentary, and the ensuing market reaction. Per the BoC press conference: “The risk that higher energy prices quickly spread to the prices of other goods and services looks contained.” “Governing council will […]
March 16th, 2026 | The Wrong Signals
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! We’ve written at length about the housing bust emanating across the country. In particular, in the new construction space. New home sales have hit 45 year lows in the GTA, and aren’t fairing much better in Greater Vancouver, and so, as we noted last week, An article in the Globe & Mail highlighted the […]
March 9th, 2026 | Upsetting the Apple Cart
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Last week we wrote a piece titled ‘Landmark Agreements’ in which the Federal Government signed an agreement acknowleding aboriginal title for the Musqueam First Nations across most of Metro Vancouver. It was a “Landmark Agreement” according to the Feds, yet received zero mainstream media coverage. Why it received so little coverage we’ll […]
March 2nd, 2026 | Landmark Agreements?
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! While everyone was busy following the enormous geopolitical events unfolding in the middle east, a subtle news release from the Federal Government went largely unnoticed or perhaps intentionally burried, despite having (potentially) significant ramifications for nearly all of Metro Vancouver. The Musqueam Indian Band and the Government of Canada signed a Rights Recognition […]
February 23rd, 2026 | The Bill is Due
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Canada’s headline inflation rate slowed to 2.3% last month, cooler than economist expectations for 2.4%. Finally, shelter price inflation in Canada slowed to 1.7% on an annual basis, falling below 2% for the first time in nearly five years! This was largely driven by a deceleration in rent prices and mortgage interest […]
February 9th, 2026 | Pre-Sale Flip Flop
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As we noted last week, Greater Vancouver home sales continued their slump into 2026. January home sales fell 29% year-over-year in January, and were a whopping 35% below the 10 year average. The sales to actives ratio was just 9%, the lowest reading since September 2012. In other words, only 9% of […]
February 2nd, 2026 | Liquidity or Price
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As expected the Bank of Canada remained on the sidelines this past week, opting to keep interest rates on hold, and will continue to do so, barring a significant shift in the economy. Inflation pressures don’t appear to be a concern for the BoC, despite overall price levels suffocating the life out […]
January 26th, 2026 | Extinction Level Event
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Last week we wrote a piece titled ‘Plan B’ in which we highlighted the flood of rental supply driving rents lower. Much of this has been derived from developers shifting new projects from pre-sales to rentals amidst the sudden disappearance of investors. We already knew the pre-sale market was bad, but even […]
January 19th, 2026 | Plan B
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Asking rents in Canada fell again in December, falling for the 15th consecutive month according to Rentals.ca. Furthermore, December marked the slowest month for rental demand in two years, capping off five straight months of declining prospect counts. Source: Rentals.ca For those that have been following this newsletter, falling rents will come […]
January 12th, 2026 | State-Directed Credit Allocation
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As we highlighted in last week’s piece ‘The Perils of Price Discovery’ Vancouver home sales recorded a 25 year low last year, leaving many sellers stuck in their homes, unwilling to accept todays pricing. Many sellers learned the perils of price discovery. Too slow to reduce prices in a falling market, eventually […]
January 5th, 2026 | The Perils of Price Discovery
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! The Vancouver housing market ended the year with a whimper. Home sales fell 13% year-over-year in December, with both new listings and total inventory continuing to climb. It was a historical year for the Vancouver housing market. The fewest annual home sales since the year 2000, a 25 year low. Source: Steve […]
December 22nd, 2025 | Going (Staying) Home
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Human QE is over. Canada’s population outright contracted in Q3, shrinking by 76,000 people. This was the only quarterly decline on record outside the pandemic. Source: IceCap Asset Management BMO’s economist Robert Kavcic summed it up well. “A major population adjustment is well underway, and it remains one of the biggest economic […]
December 15th, 2025 | Thirty Year Highs
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As expected, the Bank of Canada held rates this past week. The relatively mundane presser could be summarized in one paragraph from Tiff. “If inflation and economic activity evolve broadly in line with the October projection, Governing Council sees the current policy rate at about the right level to keep inflation close […]
December 8th, 2025 | Self-Inflicted
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! The Canadian economy added 54K jobs in November, marking the third consecutive month of surprising job gains. The unemployment rate plunged to 6.5%, the lowest since July 2024 and down from 6.9% last month. The “suddenly hot” labour market is rather perplexing considering all the news headlines about layoffs (especially in the […]
December 1st, 2025 | Under the Hood
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! The Canadian economy showed surprising resilience in the third quarter, with GDP expanding 2.6% on an annualized basis, well above expectations from both the Bank of Canada and a poll of economists which had pegged growth at just 0.5%. However, under the hood, there was cause for concern. The surge in growth […]
November 24th, 2025 | Proformas
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Last month we wrote a piece titled ‘Hold the Applause’ in which we cautioned the Carney Government for taking a victory lap following a bounce in September housing starts. For the record, we believe his policy team knows better, but couldn’t resist a good tweet. As we noted, The seasonally adjusted annualized […]
November 10th, 2025 | No Bailout
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! The Carney government unveiled its highly anticipated fiscal bazooka. The deficit is pegged at $78.3 billion for this fiscal year, representing 2.5% of Canada’s GDP. That’s roughly in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The budget foresees an extra $167 billion in total budget deficits over the […]
November 3rd, 2025 | Worse Than The 90’s?
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! As expected the Bank of Canada slashed rates once again, bringing the overnight rate to 2.25%, and bringing the prime rate to 4.45%, it’s lowest level since June 2022. “There’s nothing to cheer about here. We’re lowering interest rates because the economy is under immense strain,” noted Warren Lovely, managing director with […]
October 27th, 2025 | Hold the Applause
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.4% in September, more than expected. Perhaps more intriguing is that rental prices are accelerating higher. They’re now up 4.8% year-over-year and 6.1% annualized over the past three months. A head scratcher for any regular reader here. So what does Stats Canada see that we don’t? […]
October 20th, 2025 | Powder Keg
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! We do our best to steer clear of politics in this newsletter. However, there are times when politics can’t be ignored, especially when it comes to housing, which has become a social and political powder keg in recent years. It seems political careers largely hinge on the fate of the housing market […]
October 6th, 2025 | Unsold Inventory Steve Saretsky
Steve Saretsky Blog - Happy Monday Morning! Last week we penned an article titled ‘Intervention Required’ in which we highlighted the growing chorus of developers demanding immediate government intervention to arrest the collapse in the new housing industry. With home sales in Canada’s largest major metro running 90% below the long term average, things are starting to get out […]
September 29th, 2025 | Intervention Required
The Saretsky Report - Happy Monday Morning! As we have been highlighting for quite some time, the new housing sector is in shambles and isn’t likely to improve for at least another year or two. As always, governments are slow to react despite a lot of hand waving from the private sector. Recent data from Altus Group shows us […]