As has been the theme for the past few reports, inflation and interest rates remain front and center. Inflation remains stubbornly high and central banks are panicking to reign it in. They are now tasked with the impossible mission of killing enough demand to bring commodity prices (energy) down, without triggering a financial mistake and or recession. Keep in mind Canada has one of the worst balance sheets in the G-20, with total non financial debt to GDP at over 350%. Households, corporations, and governments in Canada are highly levered. Vancouver & Toronto housing prices have benefited immensely off cheap leverage, which is now going away, at least temporarily. Again, lets just run some simple numbers here. The benchmark price of a home in Greater Vancouver, which measures the cost of your typical home across all property segments (houses, condos, townhouses) equates to $1,261,100 as of the end of May.