– Urban is often a euphemism for “black”, “inner-city” or “low-income”. Unless, of course, you’re the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods, the FUN part of the Coalition After Property Tax Reform, in which case urban means… South Rosedale.

– Have you heard? The housing boom is “officially over.” That’s according to Doug Porter of BMO Economics, who issued a note commenting on the dive in year-over-year housing resales across Canada reported by the Candian Real Estate Association yesterday. Could this lead to another revision of Porter’s happy outlook for Canada, which hinges on a continued strong housing market?

– Inflation in Canada remains low, thanks to the favourable exchange rate and the resulting downward pressure on domestic prices. Still, the huge rises in the price of wheat and oil, among other commodities, means that some prices are going up:

“The fact that Canadians observe easily that the price of gas and bread skyrocketed makes them unfortunately think that inflation is skyrocketing too,” said Sébastien Lavoie, economist at Laurentian Bank of Canada.

The fact is, price inflation is occurring in some key areas that affect consumers most. Declines in the prices other, big ticket items are often hard for an individual consumer to track. There will never be a way of measuring inflation that accurately reflects the experience of the average person buying weekly groceries and paying monthly bills.