{"id":1169,"date":"2026-02-20T09:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/cibc-warns-housing-starts-mask-gta-economic-weakness\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:01:16","slug":"cibc-warns-housing-starts-mask-gta-economic-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/2026\/02\/20\/cibc-warns-housing-starts-mask-gta-economic-weakness\/","title":{"rendered":"CIBC Warns: Housing Starts Mask GTA Economic Weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent CIBC report raises concerns about the Canadian housing market, suggesting that overstated housing start figures may be masking underlying economic vulnerabilities. While the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported a 5.6% increase in housing starts for 2025, CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal argues that these numbers are potentially misleading and don&#8217;t reflect the true pace of construction. <\/p>\n<p>Tal emphasizes that falling property values could impact homeowners&#8217; wealth perception, leading to increased savings rather than spending. While lower prices may offer opportunities for first-time buyers in the GTA, Tal cautions that it&#8217;s not a sustainable solution for long-term affordability. He urges all levels of government to address the underlying costs of homeownership to stimulate supply across Canada. For a deeper dive into CIBC&#8217;s analysis and its implications for the GTA market, read the full article on BNN Bloomberg. <\/p>\n<p>[Link to original article: https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/business\/real-estate\/2026\/02\/18\/cibc-warns-overstated-housing-starts-mask-economic-weakness-in-canada\/]<\/p>\n<p><!-- RealEstateToday Source Article --><\/p>\n<div data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/business\/real-estate\/2026\/02\/18\/cibc-warns-overstated-housing-starts-mask-economic-weakness-in-canada\/\"><\/div>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/business\/real-estate\/2026\/02\/18\/cibc-warns-overstated-housing-starts-mask-economic-weakness-in-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the original article<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CIBC warns inflated housing start data obscures economic challenges. Declining property values may impact GTA homeowners &amp; first-time buyer opportunities arise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,206],"tags":[335,476,182,221,324,207],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-data","category-residential","tag-cibc","tag-economic-outlook","tag-gta","tag-housing-prices","tag-housing-starts","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realestategtatoday.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}