The forecast is not available
We will not give you one, and be wary of anyone who does. What we publish instead is what the market is actually doing now, refreshed with every CREB® release — direction, supply, and how differently the segments behave. Current direction → · Where the market sits →
The useful question is not whether prices will fall. It is what happens to you in each case.
What waiting actually costs
- Rent paid meanwhile buys nothing and cannot be recovered. The clearest cost, and the one most often left out of the comparison.
- Borrowing conditions move independently of prices. A lower purchase price at a higher cost of borrowing can produce a larger monthly payment than the deal you passed on. The two rarely move in your favour at the same moment.
- Selection is not constant. Waiting on price means waiting through every listing that would have suited you. Supply in a specific segment — bedroom count, a garage, one side of the city — can stay thin for a long stretch.
- Competition returns quickly. Softer conditions bring buyers off the sidelines, so whoever waits for confirmation that the bottom has passed buys in a crowd.
Waiting is not a neutral act with no cost. It is a position, and it carries a price whether or not the market moves.
When waiting is the right call
There are good reasons to wait. None of them is a forecast.
- Your down payment is not where you want it, and another year materially changes what you can buy or what it costs to borrow.
- Your work or household situation is unsettled. Transaction costs make a short hold expensive in any market.
- You have not decided where you want to live. Working that out →
- You are not pre-approved, so you are shopping without knowing what you are shopping for.
Those are answerable, and worth the delay. Whether the market drops is neither. Renting versus buying →