> The real estate market has been red hot after an initial slowdown during quarantine:
The spike here coincides with the riots and "defund the police", not the recession or pandemic/quarantine. It's likely people moving away from the hotspots.
The chart in the article shows the median price of homes sold. Nothing about total real estate transaction volume which is what you’d need to look at to say that the market is “red hot”. Common sense would dictate that the only people spending money on real estate right now have excess wealth and are playing around with more expensive properties.
Anecdotally, I live in a less popular region of Canada - our version of flyover country if you like - and our real estate has been on fire despite the rioting over here being fairly muted. I think a lot of homeowners in large urban centres are getting out due to fears of the pandemic and in some cases, being able to work remotely. So they're selling their condos in trendy cities like Toronto and Vancouver and buying single family homes in places like Halifax.
Not sure whom they're selling to though, investors maybe...
The spike here coincides with the riots and "defund the police", not the recession or pandemic/quarantine. It's likely people moving away from the hotspots.