COVID-19 pandemic could trigger a nearly 50 per cent drop in housing prices and a peak unemployment rate of 25 per cent, if the government doesn’t offer relief, says the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.A W-shaped recovery is when an economy begins to rebound from a recession quickly but then rapidly falls into another period of downturn before recovering again.“That scenario is very severe and implausible in nature, but it’s very important to understand,” said CMHC’s chief risk officer Nadine LeBlanc in a Thursday media briefing.
Pandemic housing boom means affordability is no longer just a big-city problem The scenarios LeBlanc discussed are not meant to be predictions or forecasts tied to what CMHC sees headed for the country.