“We continue to see clues that underlying demand for housing is picking up steam,” says CREA’s head wizard, Valérie Paquin. It says sales will jump almost 8%, reaching the highest level since the germy days of 2021. The 189,000 properties now for sale across Canada is “very close to the long-term average”, so no panic there. “Combined with an increase in sales activity, the sales-to-new listings ratio tightened to 52.2% compared to 51% recorded in September. “Overall, this does little to change the BoC’s view that underlying inflation remains close to 2-1/2%,” says BMO Economics.