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Expectations for Canada’s housing market are heating up, with more than half of respondents in a weekly telephone survey predicting home prices will rise, the first time the measure has topped 50 per cent in records dating back to 2008.

The bullishness comes even as a run on deposits at Toronto-based mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. leads to heightened scrutiny of a market which policy makers have said is divorced from economic fundamentals. The broad Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index fell to 59 in the week ended March 5.

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Some 50.1 per cent of respondents said they expect local home prices to rise. The figure has climbed for six straight weeks and is higher than the average for the series of 37.1 per cent. The percentage of people surveyed in the week ending May 5 who said local home prices will decline in the next six months slid to 10 per cent from 10.7 per cent.

“Consumer sentiment on real estate has gone from hot to hotter,” said Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos.