The Canadian Real Estate Association expects home sales to edge down less than one per cent and prices to fall almost six per cent from 2022, which ended with the market in a sluggish state as sellers and buyers sat on the sidelines. The Canadian Real Estate Association says it expects home prices this year to fall six per cent from 2022 levels. A real estate sign is displayed in front of a house in the Riverdale area of Toronto on Wednesday, September 29, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Evan Buhler   The association's forecast amounts to 495,858 changing hands in 2023 and is based on sales "more or less" stabilizing since the summer, "suggesting the downward adjustment to sales activity from rising interest rates and high uncertainty may be in the rear-view mirror." The same factors will also put a damper on the average home price, which CREA said will reach $662,103 in 2023. For 2024, CREA expects home sales to rise by 10.2 per cent as markets continue to return to normal, while it expects the national average home price to gain 3.5 per cent from 2023 to 2024 to around $685,056, below 2022 but back on par with 2021. The predictions come after a topsy turvy year for Canadian housing, which began with homes in heated markets like Vancouver and Toronto changing hands at a rapid pace as interest rates remained low. However, spring brought rate hikes that increasingly put a damper on sales, as sellers took their homes off the market to wait for prices to rise again and buyers decided their mortgage payments would be too hefty to make a purchase. "Interest rates are just too high," said Michelle Gilbert, a Toronto broker with Sage Real Estate Limited. "A lot of the people I am working with are people that have to move, so people that are either relocating ... or people that are upgrading their home." Investors have mostly vanished as have first-time home buyers, dropping home sales CREA reported for December 2022 39.1 per cent compared with a year earlier. Last month's home sales were up 1.3 per cent on a month-over-month basis. BMO Capital Markets chief economist Doug Porter took the numbers as a sign that there is little forced selling underway, helping to support prices. However, he cautioned against making predictions based on the month. "Housing activity tends to be at its quietest in December and January in any event, so it's unwise to read too much into trends around the turn of the year," he wrote in a note to investors.  "But this past December was particularly slow, for both sales and—importantly—new listings." It also marked a further depression of prices. The actual national average home price in December was $626,318, down 12 per cent from the final month of 2021.  CREA found Ontario and B.C.'s December pricing shows the markets have mostly cooled from the peaks because of higher borrowing costs. Prices in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador have been holding up much better and Quebec and the Maritime provinces are landing somewhere in between. While prices in most markets have declined from a short-lived sharp peak in early 2022, they remain well above where they were in the summer of 2020, CREA added. It found 2022 sales were 25 per cent below 2021, but the average price was about two per cent higher than 2021 at $703,875. "As we look ahead to the crucial spring selling season, the all-important question is who will emerge from hibernation in greater force — buyers or sellers?" Porter said. "We suspect that the market will still be digesting the rapid run-up in interest rates, and that buyers will be more reluctant to re-emerge, keeping prices under pressure for some time yet." Gilbert agrees, predicting 2023 will be the year many sellers break the standoff. "We're going to see sellers come out of hiding because I don't think they want to wait until the market has absolutely bottomed," she said.  "I think it could be a spring market." However, she warned buyers will have less incentive to get back into the market unless interest rate hikes subside or the benchmark starts to decline. Economists have been predicting the Bank of Canada will make at least one more rate increase later this month to counter stubbornly high inflation. "It's not to say that it's dark and gloomy, but I think everyone's a little cautious," she said. "If Bank of Canada does stop the tightening, I think there'll be a lot more optimism ... but for now, there's nothing to be optimistic about."   This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2023. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

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Barrie is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Canada, and in this video we'll cover the top 10 Best Tourist Attractions of Barrie, Ontario.  Barrie is a city in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, about 80 km north of Toronto. It is located on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. It is a politically independent single-tier municipality within Simcoe County. So to help you figure out the places you need to try, we've gathered up a bucket list of the best Places in Barrie that you won't regret going to. Wiki Peaks is on a mission to promote the tourism in the World. We are here to show you the beautiful places in the world. You can see the beauty of this world from the comfort of your home. There are many beautiful places in Barrie. Canada has some of the best places in Barrie. We collected data on the top 10 places to visit in Barrie. There are many famous places in Barrie and some of them are beautiful places in Barrie. People from all over Canada love these Barrie beautiful places which are also Barrie famous places. In this video, we will show you the beautiful places to visit in Barrie.

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Let's talk about the 15 Reasons Why People LOOOVE Barrie Ontario Canada.  These are not ALL the reasons why people love Barrie and if you have a reason why you love Barrie, put it in the comment section and tell us yours. 1. Kempenfelt Bay2. Waterfront3. Spirit Catcher Sculpture4. Breweries5. Downtown6. Parks7. Beaches8. Festivals9. Georgian College10. Five Points Theatre11. MacLaren Art Centre12. Barrie Colts13. Location14. Ski Options15. Splashon Wibit Water Park Barrie is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Barrie is part of the extended urban area in southern Ontario known as the Greater Golden Horseshoe.  As of the 2016 census, the city's population was 141,434. The city has grown significantly in recent decades due to its emergence as a bedroom community for Toronto, to which it is connected by Ontario Highway 400 and GO Transit.  Significant sectors of the city's diversified economy include education, healthcare, information technology and manufacturing. The affordability of housing and robust job market contribute to Toronto people buying real estate in Barrie.  GO Transit offers daily service to and from the Greater Toronto Area from two stations in the city. Barrie is located 85 kilometres (53 mi) north of Toronto, 355 kilometres (221 mi) northeast of Detroit and 335 kilometres (208 mi) west of Ottawa.  This represents the city's highly centralized and historically advantageous location, providing easy access to major centres and airports.

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