No. They say that economists have two hands for a reason—because they like to say “on the one hand” this and “on the other hand” that—but you were very direct, and it makes sense. When you have more dollars chasing fewer goods, it drives up prices.
Mr. Moranis, in the year leading up to fall 2021, there was an increase of $200 billion, or 80%, in the dollar volume of housing purchases. The dollar volume went from the normal $250 billion per year to suddenly, out of nowhere, $450 billion. Now, this was during a time period when the economy was actually weak. The GDP was still smaller than it had been in 2019. Real wages were down. Immigration was down. All of the things that normally drive inflation were actually down, yet from somewhere we got 200 billion extra dollars to spend on real estate.
Now, put aside the debate about the underlying causes for Canada's high real estate prices for a moment. We all agree, though, that money did transact. It actually did. People did move money from the buyer's account to the seller's account, so 200 billion extra dollars found their way into housing. From whence did that money magically appear?