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This article appears in the September edition of the Financial Post Magazine. Visit the iTunes store to download the iPad edition of this month’s issue.

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Business is brisk for Alberta mortgage broker Adil Mawji. However, it’s not because Albertans are busy buying homes — sales are actually declining in Canada’s one-time boom province. Rather, it’s because Albertans are fearful for their jobs as the oil and gas market gets routed. They are looking to take risk off the table and lock in mortgage rates at historically low levels. “People are trying to get their mortgage secured right now and take advantage of the lower rates,” says Mawji, a senior mortgage broker at Invis Inc. and president of the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association. “A lot of people in the oil and gas sector are not sure if their jobs are going to be around or if they are going to be making as much money. We’re trying to coach them to be prepared.”

The organization that represents about 100,000 realtors in Canada has updated its housing forecast and is now calling for prices to rise again slightly in 2016.

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More than just the resale market is being impacted by oil’s slide. Brian Johnston, chief operating officer of Mattamy Homes, Canada’s largest new homebuilder, said his firm, which has communities in both Ontario and Alberta, quickly reacted to oil’s decline and “made some market price adjustments and dabbled with incentives. We don’t believe this is a short-term phenomenon.”