The year’s most-read news stories take in the BC election, the mortgage stress test and some diverging market predictions

In a year of market uncertainty, various government interventions and a provincial election, REW’s News + Trends category saw more clicks than ever before. But what were the hottest of all those hot topics? Here’s our countdown of our five most-clicked News + Trends stories of the year…

5. “Stress Test” for All Mortgages to Launch in New Year

The fifth most-read news story of 2017 was the announcement of the dreaded “stress test” qualification rules being extended to all new mortgage applicants. The test had already been applied to applicants for insured mortgages (less than 20% down payment) in the fall of 2016, but fears that even those buyers with 20% down payment or more were overstretching themselves – and putting banks at risk – led to the much-anticipated announcement in October 2017. There was a lot of pushback, with some decrying the decision as likely to make things worse.

4. NDP Plans 2% Yearly Tax for Non-Resident Home Owners

The only provincial election story to hit our top five most-clicked is this pre-election piece about a key NDP housing promise. The eventually victorious party pledged that if it were to gain power, it would impose a 2% tax on owners of Vancouver homes who do not pay Canadian income taxes (with many exemptions for non-taxpaying locals). As of December 2017, there’s no sign of any such tax so far, but it’s still early days.

3. New Mortgage Rules Set to Further Cool Markets Up To 10%

The second of two stories on the new stress test, this one anticipates the October confirmation about the new policy, with TD Bank predicting that it could cool the housing market. The reduction in buyers’ purchasing power could be as much as 20%, and with some markets already seeing a slowdown, the new rules could exacerbate any price corrections, said the bank. We’ll see in the first part of 2018 whether TD’s number-crunchers were right…

2. Vancouver Housing Market “Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”

One of two prediction stories about Vancouver’s housing market in these rankings, this piece was more of a warning than an optimistic outlook. At an industry event, leading real estate marketer Cameron McNeill from MLA Canada warned that the relatively slow rate of new home construction combined with increased demand and population growth meant that Vancouver was “dancing on the edges of a massive problem” in housing supply. What does this mean for market activity and home prices? “We ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” McNeill warned. The article that covered his comments obviously rang our users’ alarm bells, as it was the year’s second most-read News + Trends story.

1. 2017 Vancouver and BC Real Estate Market Outlook

Our top story of the year was also our first story of the year. This January 3, 2017 article was a round-up of market predictions from various industry groups and Big Banks – some of them bullish, some less so. Most predicted a drop in home sales compared with the frenzy of early 2016 – correctly, as it turns out. But the overall consensus that Vancouver and BC home prices would lose ground turned out to be inaccurate – only Central 1 was correct, in that home prices in fall of 2017 would be higher than a year previously. This story was popular right off the bat in January, but readers also kept coming back to it throughout the year – perhaps to see whose predictions had been right…