The chart above shows the detached housing prices for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa* and Montréal (*Ottawa are combined residential). In January 2012 Canadian real estate prices offered up surprising volatility. In the west, Vancouver's high end flippers wowed the market with a 16.6% single month gain in average  SFD prices while in Calgary, SFDs dropped another 3.4% M/M and are trading at prices from 5 years ago and rank first in Canada with the biggest dollar loss ($67,237) in equity since their peak in July 2007 (Plunge-O-Meter). In central Canada, it was rally time for Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal as prices recovered from the December sell off especially in Ottawa with 5.1% M/M gain in combined residential prices  (Scorecard). "Real" interest rates are on the move (up) with the plunge in CPI and the uptick in the treasury yield curve. It's not a trend yet, but definitely something to watch. Holding real estate in a rising rate environment will require dusting off those calculators and figuring out your ROI here.