A report from CBC News on Canada. "The P.E.I. Real Estate Association says changes to the Provincial Nominee Program are already having an impact on the Island's housing market. A month after the province announced it was scrapping the immigrant entrepreneur stream of PNP, the association says the steady rise in house prices P.E.I. has seen over the past couple of years appear to be slowing."

"The controversial entrepreneur stream granted applicants permanent residency upon arrival on P.E.I, in exchange for a $200,000 deposit and a promise to start up or buy a business here. Greg Lipton, the association's president says while the majority who came through the entrepreneur stream ultimately lost their deposit and left the Island, many still bought houses here."

"'There are vacant houses out there that people just aren't living in. They were specifically bought for the point of 'okay, we need to have a residence on P.E.I. Here's our residence on P.E.I.',' said Lipton."

"Charlottetown realtor Jie Hu says 90 per cent of her business over the past few years has come from immigrants who arrived through the entrepreneur stream, most of them from China. 'We did have quite a few clients that purchased high price real estate properties,' said Hu. 'In China, they only had an apartment or condo. But when they came to P.E.I., they found single family homes that are so affordable, and so lovely. So they say, why not buy a house?'"

From The Province. "Interfor Corp. plans to cut production by about 20 per cent across its sawmills in the B.C. Interior as it faces declining lumber prices and higher log costs. The pullback comes as lumber prices for Western softwood have plunged from over US$650 per thousand board feet in June to under US$400 as concerns mount about the U.S. housing market."

"'We obviously saw some very strong lumber markets in the first part of this year, and the higher log costs didn’t have as much of an impact when there were higher lumber prices,' said chief financial officer Martin Juravsky."

"The drop in lumber prices has sent industry stock prices lower for a variety of Canadian players since the June high. Canfor Corp. is down 38 per cent, West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is down 34 per cent, and Interfor is down 39 per cent."

From Penticton Infotel. "Home sales took a plunge in the South Okanagan in September. The latest statistics from the South Okanagan Real Estate Board indicate the number of homes sold declined 46.9 per cent over September 2017 with only 119 units sold in September this year compared to 225 sold during the same month in 2017."

'Year-to-year statistics show home sales are down 20 per cent so far in 2018 compared to the same period last year from 1,977 to 1,576 respectively. The average price of a home in the South Okanagan in September was $362,320 compared to $421,116 a year ago, which is a drop of 14.2 per cent."

"Real Estate Board President Linda Devreux says real estate activity in the South Okanagan 'came off the boil sharply over the first half of the year, and is currently running at below-average levels.'"

"She calls the decline in average price in September 'a compositional thing.' 'It seems to be the result of very little going on above the $1 million mark, compared to last September,' she says."

The Regina Leader Post. "The Association of Regina Realtors, which operates the area’s multiple listing service, said there were only 238 home sales in Regina and the surrounding area throughout the month of September. That’s 19.3 per cent fewer than the same month last year."

"'This is the lowest level of sales since 2005 when 228 sales occurred and well below the past 5-year average,' the association said."

"Home prices in the Regina area are also down, according to the association. The price of a benchmark single family home dropped from $303,800 last year to $288,900 last month. At a highpoint, five years ago, the same house would have cost $313,400."

"In its press release, the association said most of the damage was done over the past 12 months."

"It’s also taking longer to sell a home, the data suggests. As of September, there were 1,652 active residential listings on the Regina market. The average home in the city stayed on the market for 61 days before selling — longer than at any point over the past eight years."

"The data is only the latest sign of a chill in the local market. Building permit numbers for June showed Regina had the biggest 12-month percentage drop in value of any large city in the country."

From CBC Calgary. "Calgary home sales were expected to be slow this year — but not this slow. 'We didn't expect this much of a decline in sales activity,' said Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist with the Calgary Real Estate Board, taking stock of the first nine months of 2018."

"Fewer than 13,000 homes changed hands during that time, down 14 per cent from the same period in 2017, which was itself a slow year."

"From a sales point of view, 2018 has been the slowest Calgary has seen in more than a decade. There was some thought, earlier this year, that the summer season might boost the pace of transactions, but that failed to materialize."

"Sales have been below long-term averages for the past few years now. Lurie said it's increasingly apparent that 'the market has changed' and the near future probably won't look like the recent past. 'So that expectation of a quick rebound in the real estate market? It's really just not the case,' she said. 'We just don't expect to see that happen.'"

"In other words, the heady days of 2014 aren't coming back anytime soon. By September 2014, the number of home sales that year had already cracked 20,000. They would reach nearly 26,000 by the end of the year. And prices followed. If you bought a middle-of-the-road home in January 2014, you were $27,000 richer, on paper, by December."

"Today, however, many homeowners are finding themselves in the opposite situation. Median prices are down $10,000 so far in 2018, compared with a year prior. And there are indications the downward trend could continue."

"Emma May, co-founder of Charles Real Estate in Calgary, wouldn't be surprised if prices continue to fall in the coming months. 'There's lots of inventory and prices are starting to move downwards but they haven't really, quite yet,' she said. The current conditions give prospective buyers the luxury of being choosy, and May said many are exercising that advantage."

"Some of her clients who want to sell are even reluctant to list their homes, said said, for fear of being subjected to a 'whole flood of people' coming to kick tires without being willing to put in offers anywhere near the price they're hoping to ask."

"Other would-be sellers who can't get the price they want are opting to rent their homes in the meantime, and wait for a rebound in sale prices. But May doesn't expect that to come anytime soon. 'I think people need to wrap their minds around it,' she said. 'These prices aren't going to be going up anytime soon and, if you want to sell, this is the new normal, for now.'"