The aggregate price of a home in Canada increased 2.2% year-over-year to $648,544 in the fourth quarter of 2019 as reported by the Royal LePage House Price Survey. As we have seen in the third quarter, potential buyers are continuosly coming back to the real estate market.

Buyers stayed in the sidelines during the first half of 2019, trying to guage the potential impact of the federal mortgage stress test."The federal government has signaled that changes could come to the mortgage stress test mechanism in 2020," said Phil Soper, president and CEO, Royal LePage. "The stress test pushed people out of real estate markets across Canada temporarily. For the most part, buyers have adjusted, yet it still represents a significant hurdle as families pursue the dream of owning their own home."

The impact of regulations-driven drop in demand is felt very differently in different parts of the country as per Soper.

"We believe policy makers have the necessary experience to modify the tool to meet the reality of today's Canada – that we have very different and varied economies, and by extension housing policy needs, from region to region," said Soper.

Based on the different housing types, the median price for a two-storey home reached $761,817, a 2.3% increase year-over-year, while the median price of a bungalow increased by a modest 0.7% to $537,622. Condominiums reached $487,525, a 3.3% rise year-over-year and remained the fastest appreciating housing type.

As for Greater Vancouver, national price gains were offset by year-over-year declines in Greater Vancouver's real estate market where the median price of a condominium decreased 3.4% to $645,607.

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