Cooling measures likely as Canada home prices keep heading north

Ottawa

LOW borrowing costs and hot demand in key urban centres will keep pushing Canadian house prices higher this year, a Reuters poll showed, pressuring policymakers to take further steps to rein in a market that more specialists are calling a bubble.

Most economists polled said there was a risk of a sharp correction in Toronto and Vancouver, two of the country's most expensive markets, though they were divided on the likelihood that Canada as a whole would see a painful pullback.