Home sales rise in May, reverse mortgages hit the gas and the Home of the Week: Canadian real estate news for the week of June 19

This week: The real estate market shows a promising sign, and controversial reverse mortgages explode in Canada. Plus, collapsing appliance stores leave customers in the lurch, and one property worth a look.

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Market trends

Home sales up 5.5% in May, showing signs of strength

While homeowners cry foul over depressed prices, some buyers are using the market slump to score a little more bang for their buck. National home sales jumped 5.5 per cent in May, the largest increase since November, 2024, when interest rate cuts brought buyers off the sidelines. Purchases were up 10 per cent in Toronto and 8.8 per cent in Ontario since April, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

It’s a promising sign for the slow market but, as Rachelle Younglai reports, Canada is nowhere near a full bounce-back. The 38,000 sales made in May is still 5.6 per cent lower than that month’s 10-year average, with interest rate uncertainty keeping some potential buyers in a holding pattern. Still, last month’s jump shows homeowners might be coming around to the new normal, and accepting that their properties are not worth what they were a few years ago, CREA’s senior economist Shaun Cathcart told Rachelle. So, if you’re looking to buy, now might be a better time to seal the deal.

No refunds

Appliance and furniture stores are collapsing, and homeowners are paying the price

Is your refrigerator running? It might be fleeing the real-estate and home-building downturn’s latest casualty. Appliance and home furnishings companies are going under, catching fridges and homeowners awaiting deliveries and repairs in the lurch.

That’s what happened to Cathy Proctor, her sisters and brother-in-law, who ordered $30,000 worth of custom kitchen appliances to renovate a rural home near Calgary into a co-operative living space. But months before their dream of growing old together was set to begin, supplier Coast Wholesale Appliances began insolvency proceedings. Now, they have no appliances and, so far, no recourse to get their $15,000 deposit back.

As Mariya Postelnyak and Zarif Sinha report, the fallout has spotlighted how weak Ontario and Alberta’s consumer protections are in comparison to B.C.’s. “Everybody just deposits on these big items, they have no rights, really. They just get in the back of the line,” Proctor said. But, as experts point out, there are ways to protect yourself. Read the full story before you take the plunge on a new appliance.

This week’s lowest fixed and variable mortgage rates in Canada

Rates shown are the lowest available for each term/type and category (insured vs. uninsured) as of market close on Thursday, June 18.

Analysis

Canada’s reverse mortgage market has quietly grown to almost $11-billion

Thinking about taking out a reverse mortgage? You’re hardly alone, as more and more older homeowners turn to the controversial financial product to access their equity. Canadians now owe around $10.9-billion in reverse mortgages, a figure which has risen sharply by an annual average of 20.9 per cent since 2016.

The arrangement allows seniors to access funds without selling or downsizing, and to keep ownership of their homes, while the lender registers a mortgage against the home’s title. As Hanif Bayat writes, plenty of criticism of reverse mortgages is based on misconceptions. But there are also very real concerns to worry about, like the relatively high interest rates and the fact they can erode inheritances left to children.

So before you take out a reverse mortgage, tap the brakes, read Hanif’s full analysis and take a closer look about what is fact and what is fiction.

Design corner

‘Barkitecture’ isn’t just for the doghouse anymore

More and more pet-owners are designing their homes with their furry friends in mind as ‘barkitecture’ helps make life a little less ruff for family members of all species. It’s part of the growing pet wellness trend that’s adding luxury to our four-legged friends’ lives of leisure.

From built-in pet baths and doggy bars to custom hidden litterboxes and leash storage, here’s how pet-friendly design is helping animals and their humans stay organized, clean and stylish.

Home of the Week

A hidden gem gets its shine back

103 Summerhill Ave., Toronto – Full gallery here

Sweat equity, elbow grease and labours of love: it took everything – and several decades – to make this central Toronto home sparkle like the gem it is. Tucked in a quiet enclave near Yonge and St. Clair, this three-bedroom, three-bathroom semi-detached is shielded from the city’s hustle and bustle by David A. Balfour Park, a railway line and a network of ravines. Most Torontonians probably don’t know about it, and the residents don’t mind one bit.

Now, the rundown home Meg Pinto purchased during the downturn in 1993 has a new lease on life, for the second time. She fought through waist-high weeds and a dungeon-like basement to make urgent repairs in those early years, renovating the kitchen and slowly chipping away at the garden. But in 2020, the discovery of asbestos forced her to take everything down to the studs.

The house is unrecognizable today, in a good way. The open-concept main floor has a glass door to connect the kitchen with a secluded terrace and maximize light, while the once shudder-inducing basement has become the family room. Pinto, who owned flower shop Parterre for more than a decade, also lent her green thumb to the gardens, which shelter the home and the backyard in greenery.