Hey Everyone,
Have you been watching the Olympics?
Did you catch the Canada / “Czechoslovakia” game yesterday? Six on the ice?!?
For a minute there, it felt like one of those “of course this would happen to us” moments. Bad bounce, missed call, momentum swings the wrong way. You could feel every Canadian thinking the same thing: please don’t let this be how it ends.
Sometimes you control the game. Sometimes the game happens to you.
How you respond is what matters.
That’s pretty much where a lot of people are at with their housing and mortgage decisions right now.
The Last Few Years Happened To You
If we’re honest, most of what’s happened since 2020 has felt out of your hands:
Rates plunged, then spiked.
Prices surged, then corrected.
Headlines swung from “FOMO or you’ll miss out forever” to “Crash coming?” and back again.
You didn’t choose any of that. You just had to live through it.
But 2026 is different. CREA, Royal LePage, and others are all calling this a reset year: modest price growth, more activity, and a move back toward something resembling normal. Rates are relatively stable. The panic phase is over; the slow, deliberate phase has started.
This is the part where reaction matters more than conditions.
The Game Has Slowed Down. Now What?
When a game calms down after chaos, good teams don’t just relax, they start running their plays again.
In housing terms, here’s what that looks like:
Prices in many markets are off their peak and expected to grow modestly, not explode.
National home sales are forecast to rise about 5.1% in 2026, driven largely by pent‑up demand finally getting off the bench.
Inventory is better than it was in the frenzy days, which means more choice and more negotiating room for buyers.
You can’t control the past few years. But you can decide whether you want to use this calmer, clearer environment to make a move, or let it drift by and hope the next period break is just as forgiving.
If You’ve Been Thinking About Buying
If “I should buy” has been living rent‑free in your head for a while, this is one of those rare stretches where:
Your timing doesn’t have to be perfect to be good.
You’re not fighting 15 offers on every listing.
You can build a mortgage strategy around stable rates instead of guessing what the Bank of Canada will do next week.
Most forecasts aren’t calling for a big price drop from here; they’re calling for modest gains as the year goes on. That means waiting is less about catching a bargain… and more about competing with more buyers later for roughly the same house, at a slightly higher price.
Sometimes taking back control just means choosing to act while things are still relatively quiet.
If You Already Own but Don’t Feel “Set”
Maybe your payment feels tight. Maybe you’ve got other debts hanging around. Maybe your current place doesn’t really match your life anymore, work‑from‑home reality, kids, parents, or just wanting a different lifestyle.
In a volatile rate world, restructuring felt scary. In a stable rate world, refinancing or re‑setting your mortgage is more like a planned line change:
You can look at extending your amortization to create breathing room.
You can roll in higher‑interest debts and clean up the monthly cash flow picture.
You can explore using your equity to move into a home that actually fits what you need over the next 5–10 years, not what you needed five years ago.
Again, you don’t control the rate cycle. But you do control whether your current mortgage setup is working for you, or you’re just working for it.
Doing Nothing Is Still a Choice
One of the easiest traps right now is thinking, “Things are finally calmer. I’ll just wait and see.”
But here’s what the data suggests “wait and see” actually looks like in 2026:
Sales gradually pick up as more sidelined buyers come back.
Prices edge up modestly, not dramatically.
Affordability doesn’t magically improve; it just stops getting worse as fast.
You’re probably not waiting for a cheaper house and lower rates. You’re mostly waiting for more people to chase the same homes you’re looking at.
Sometimes you control the game. Sometimes the game happens to you. How you respond is what matters.
If the last few years felt like the game was happening to you, this stretch, right now, is your chance to start playing on purpose again.
If you want to talk through what “taking back control” could look like for you, buying, refinancing, or moving into something that actually fits, reply and tell me where you’re at today and where you’d like to be by the end of 2026.
-Andrew
Find out what’s possible!
You can build a quick mortgage scenario online in under a minute–or just hit reply and I’ll run it for you.