This week, the Bank of Canada lowered its key interest rate once again. In a normal, non-trade-war world, this would have been great news for prospective homebuyers – if only their attention wasn’t so occupied by uncertainty. Plus, one home worth a look.

On March 12, the Bank of Canada announced it was lowering its key interest rate to 2.75 per cent from 3 per cent. As Rachelle Younglai writes, this was supposed to be the year buyers came back after two years of waiting for mortgage rates to fall. But prospective homebuyers aren’t rushing to buy a house as uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs bring a chill to the whole market. Experts predict buyers will continue their holding pattern until they see more stability. This week, Carolyn Ireland spoke with real estate agents who said they have clients planning on listing their homes in the spring, once the economic uncertainties – as well as a slew of raging snowstorms – begin to calm down.

It’s safe to say the condo market is struggling right now. Appraisal values have been going down, and prices are falling due to the rising number of unsold units. But Trump’s tariffs and the trade war with the U.S. has added some complications. With lots of properties on the market, falling mortgage rates, and little competition, now should be a perfect opportunity for young people to buy a house. But as Erica Alini writes, those who are looking to upgrade from their starter condos are having trouble climbing up the rungs of the real estate ladder due to the low demand and prices of the condo market. Many sellers are still trying to get the high prices they were used to a few years ago, but experts say even condo owners who’ve priced their units competitively are struggling to find buyers.

Meanwhile, tariffs both from the U.S. and reciprocally from Canada have condo renovators struggling to manage and keep their existing contracts with clients. As Shane Dingman writes, the issue is two-pronged: renovators could get hit with tariffs on building materials crossing the border that were placed before the whole fiasco started, while also dealing with a potential drop in their orders once the tariffs are settled in.

There are some winners in the Bank of Canada’s rate decline announcement – existing borrowers with variable-rate mortgages, lines of credit and floating-rate loans. Anyone who renewed a mortgage recently and chose a variable-rate mortgage, this fresh rate reduction validates your call. But, writes personal finance columnist Rob Carrick, the Bank of Canada is also penalizing people doing exactly the right thing with their money. The best defence for your finances in a trade war is having cash in savings accounts. But by lowering its overnight rate by 0.25 of a percentage point, the central bank engineered a small decline in the amount of interest flowing to prudent savers. Welcome to trade war economics, where governments and central banks fight with crude weapons that produce some collateral damage.

33 Rosemary Ave., Richmond Hill, Ont. – Full gallery here

The four-bedroom home sits right by Lake Wilcox, a rural getaway hidden within the city of Richmond Hill. The owner told Carolyn Ireland that he would often take his three young sons to the lake for summer activities, and first purchased the home when he began to yearn for more outdoor space. Inside, the two-storey home’s main floor has formal living and dining rooms, along with a spacious kitchen with a breakfast nook with sliding doors to the deck. Upstairs, there’s a primary bedroom and three additional bedrooms, along with two bathrooms. The home is perfect for those who love peace and quiet and want to spend as much time as possible by the water.