The dirty secret of the housing crisis? Homeowners like high prices

But Paul Kershaw, a public policy professor at the University of British Columbia and founder of the affordability advocacy group Generation Squeeze, says the emphasis on increasing housing supply obscures an issue politicians are less likely to address.

Asked about an Alberta bill that would block the federal government from directly sending funding to cities, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said provinces who don't want to solve the housing crisis should "just get out of the way."

On Friday, Royal LePage released a forecast that suggested the aggregate price of a home in Canada will increase nine per cent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of this year.

Robert Hogue, assistant chief economist at RBC, says a combination of low interest rates at the time and many people sitting on large savings "encouraged speculative activity."

Governments also have an interest in high property values because they translate to larger tax revenue, said Diana Mok, associate professor of real estate at the Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph in southern Ontario.

When existing homeowners want prices to rise faster than earnings in the local economy "is the moment you want a wealth windfall for those who are owners now that will come, by definition mathematically, at the expense of affordability for those who follow," Kershaw said.