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Housing markets across Canada contribute billions of dollars annually to the country’s economy, making up almost eight percent of gross domestic product (GDP) between 2010 and 2017.

Add to that related industries, such as moving companies, furniture manufacturers, lawyers and others and the contribution to GDP increases dramatically, but those halcyon days ended in 2018, say CIBC economists Benjamin Tal and Royce Mendes, authors of an economics report released late last year.

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“It was a good run while it lasted, but the sun has officially set on the days of heady housing market growth fueling Canada’s national economy,” write Tal and Mendes. “The combination of restrictive macroprudential policy measures and higher interest rates has taken a major bite out of housing activity.

“That’s a development which will show up in cooler GDP growth readings ahead.”

The housing market is more important to the overall Canadian economy than at any other time on record, says Tal and Mendes.