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For almost a decade Canada’s housing market has withstood just about anything that government officials have thrown at it in an attempt to restrain breakneck growth. Measures introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government on Monday may finally bring it to heel, analysts and economists say.

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The days when Canada’s banks could offload much of the risk of underwriting mortgages onto taxpayers may be drawing to a close.





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The fallout from the surprise announcement continued to build on Wednesday as shares of housing stocks tumbled anew, analysts forecast a hit to bank earnings and to an economy that has generated most of its meagre growth from housing in recent years.

“The feds clearly wanted to puncture the housing market and they have certainly done so,” Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Port Coquitlam, British Columbia-based mortgage broker Dominion Lending Centers, said in a note to clients. “These measures will provide a tipping point, encouraging those who have been waiting to sell to put their properties on the market post haste. The combination of increased supply and significantly reduced demand will weaken prices everywhere.”