There's Still Hope for Canada's Housing Woes

When it comes to expensive houses in Canada, Vancouver seems to consistently make the top cut. Shaughnessy currently has the highest average home price in the country at about C$3 million, while West Vancouver is home to the country's most expensive house, priced at about C$28 million. It is even expected that an average homeowner who wants to buy a house in Vancouver has to pay C$100,000 more than in other places like Toronto.

Arguably, this prestige can also come across as a double-edged sword, since high prices tend to scare away a lot of prospective buyers. In fact, this is exactly what is going on right now with the Canadian housing market, with sales either remaining flat or dropping even lower every month—a trend that is expected to stick around at least until 2015. Stricter mortgage laws that were passed recently seem only to increase home prices in Toronto and elsewhere instead of combating the unprecedented rise of home loans.

However, the future isn't really that bad for real estate in Canada since it is also expected that the increasingly large supply of unsold properties will encourage more people to buy them eventually. This can also happen if interest rates remain low and construction of new houses also slows down, because a growing population will compel families to buy homes. For now, and despite these housing woes, Canada is faring fairly well on the global real estate market compared to other countries like the United States and Chile.