Real Estate Board Chair Colette Gerber attributes the increased activity to lower interest rates and changing housing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sales were up 45 per cent for all home types last month, though still about 15 per cent below the 10-year average.

While prices have cooled, it's still a challenge for first-time buyers to break into the market.

Condo and townhouse prices were down about seven per cent over April last year, while detached home prices dropped 11 per cent.

Monica Martins and her husband had been looking for a house for nine months by the time they fell in love with a ``character home'' in Toronto's east end.

Still, home sales rose 4 per cent in June compared to May, the first substantive increase since the beginning of the year, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.

Where are Canadians overstretched on their mortgages? In specific neighbourhoods in Toronto and Vancouver, census data showed. What happens there when rates rise?

Vancouver home prices grew by over 12 per cent year-over-year in October, says RBC.

"We have enough history now to distinguish the clear divergence between Vancouver (down) and Toronto (still straight up)."

You can make more money by owning a single-family home than by working in Vancouver. A LOT more.