How do you develop an understanding of how the housing market is evolving? The easiest answer is to take advantage of the information offered by CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre at any regional CMHC Business Centre.

The Market Analysis Service is there to give you a clear picture of the current housing market. Local market analysis reports are published on a regular basis. They provide information on recent trends in housing market conditions.

Your local CMHC market analyst can tell you if it’s a buyer’s, seller’s or balanced housing market.

In a buyer’s market, the number of homes avail-able for sale exceeds the demand, so prices will either stabilize or drop.

With fewer buyers and more homes, you not only have more options to choose from, you also have greater negotiating leverage.

You have more time to look for the right home and you can evaluate the choices without feeling pressure to act too quickly.

Another major influence on your decision to buy is the mortgage interest rate. What rates are available now? Will they drop in the immediate future? Will they rise? If so, by how much?

Trying to answer these questions can be difficult. Once again, CMHC’s Market Analysis Service can help. It can provide you with an analysis of the mortgage market and an outlook for future mortgage rates.

For those who need to see the big picture of Canadian housing, the Market Analysis Centre produces a series of national and local subscription reports to provide you with a comprehensive housing view across the country.

You can also purchase CMHC’s AffordAbility computer software. It can help first-time homebuyers, people renewing their mortgages and move-up buyers determine the home price and mortgage they can afford.

If you prefer to access the latest housing information directly from the web, visit our Electronic Marketplace. Order our most popular reports on-line, and we'll e-mail them to you in PDF, Lotus or Excel formats - usually on the same business day.

For any of these products, or for other information on the housing market in your area, please contact your regional CMHC Business Centre.

Hamid and Yvonne had saved $15,000 for a down payment on a small older home in the Saint John neighbourhood where they had both grown up. They wanted to save more, but they kept a careful eye on mortgage interest rates, hoping they would drop lower.

Instead, rates began to climb. Hamid and Yvonne called their CMHC market analyst. They learned what the mortgage rate trends had been over the past few years. They also found out rates were expected to rise in the near future. As a result, Hamid and Yvonne decided to buy soon.