The price of houses is a special item. As you know well, it's not just something we buy. It's an asset. It gives you a stream of housing services literally forever. As a consequence, when interest rates are low, the price of all assets tends to rise, including the price of houses.
Also, the laws of supply and demand have not been ruled out. We still have excess demand for new housing relative to the supply that's being created. I note that the latest numbers show that housing starts are picking up strongly. That's just like commodities. Supply can come on the market and meet that.
I'm not going to pretend that the price of houses has not gone up, but that isn't, strictly speaking and in and of itself, inflation as we describe it. It would need to be something that is sustained for a long period of time for it to be part of inflation. Of course, it is captured in various ways in StatCan's consumer price index.
