A noteworthy trend in recent weeks has seen five-year fixed rates decline in line with falling bond yields, adding to an unpredictable housing market whose pace has cooled significantly over the last six months.

Still, Finkelberg said the market slowdown had been a somewhat uneven one, with specific areas registering more pronounced drops in sales and prices than others.

“The correction in the real estate market is an interesting one because you find tertiary markets that are dropping significantly more than certain pockets in the city,” he said. “And I think that’s natural that certain areas are not going to correct to the degree that people think they’re going to correct, because there’s still a ton of demand and not a lot of supply.”

That could see first-time homebuyers enter the market in increasing numbers in the coming months, he added, as investors bide their time before making a judgement call on whether to take the plunge.

“I believe that we’re going to see a flooding of first-time homebuyers into the market during these times,” he said, “whereas investors are taking a little bit of a step back trying to understand what is effectively ‘rock bottom’ before they enter the market.”