In the near future, even the most brilliant humans may no longer be the leading experts in any field. Artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining what it means to be accomplished, and our children and grandchildren will grow up in a world where intelligence is no longer a uniquely human advantage.

Writing in The Free Press , economist Tyler Cowen and Avital Balwit of Anthropic describe a looming identity crisis sparked by AI’s ascent. As machines outperform us in knowledge, strategy and creation, the question becomes: How do we stay relevant? Their answer: double down on the things only humans can do.

Here's How We Adapt:

1. Get Your Hands Dirty: Carpenters, electricians and tradespeople remain irreplaceable for now. Blue-collar work might evolve into a new status symbol of skill and independence.

2. Inspiration Will Still Matter: Coaches, speakers and leaders who move people emotionally will continue to be essential. The ability to stir hearts isn’t something AI can fake.

3. Charisma Is Currency: People who can genuinely connect will stand out. In a world where machines are smart, being human will be rare.

4. Human-Only Spaces: Hobbies, art, relationships and family, areas in which presence and emotion matter, will grow more valuable.

A woman stepped outside for her usual morning walk when something made her pause. The air felt different — crisp enough to hint at autumn yet still holding summer’s warmth. Above her, a single maple leaf drifted down and then landed softly on the sidewalk in a splash of golden yellow.

For the first time in months, she wasn’t mentally rehearsing her to-do list. The urgency that had driven her through summer’s packed schedule seemed to have lifted overnight. September had arrived with its quiet invitation to slow down.

As she continued her walk, more signs revealed themselves: Children’s laughter echoed from the school playground, she noticed more people wearing light sweaters, and beach visits were being replace with apple-picking trips, and the morning light seemed gentler, casting longer shadows that whispered of shorter days ahead.

She realized September carries a secret gift that most people miss during their rush toward year-end goals and holiday preparations. It offers a natural pause and a moment to breathe deeply before life accelerates into October’s harvest rush, November’s gratitude gatherings and December’s joyful chaos.

This month asks us to notice what we’ve learned and what truly matters as we prepare for the season ahead. It’s nature’s way of saying, “Rest a moment. The beautiful busy-ness is coming, but not yet.” 

September invites us to take evening walks instead of working late, to have unhurried conversations over dinner, to call an old friend just because. The holidays will arrive soon enough with their wonderful whirlwind of activity. But September offers something equally precious, the gift of intentional rest before the celebration begins.

Wishing you the peace of September’s gentle pace.

Now is the perfect time to give your home's exterior some attention. These easy end-of-season updates will help keep your property looking sharp and transitionready.

1. Mow Tall One Last Time: Before putting the mower away, give your lawn a few final trims at about three inches high. Longer grass retains moisture better and provides more shade to protect roots when temperatures fluctuate. It also helps crowd out weeds and crabgrass and prepares your lawn for a healthier comeback next spring.

2. Refresh House Numbers: Consider upgrading to larger, more-readable numbers in a clean, bold style. This small update improves visibility for guests, deliveries, and emergency responders.

3. Add Driveway Reflectors: With shorter days ahead, adding reflectors to your driveway helps guide visitors and increases safety. They're especially helpful if your home is on a dark street or in a rural area. It’s a low-cost, high-impact improvement.

4. Repair Walkways While Weather Holds: Fall is your last good stretch of weather for outdoor repairs. If your walkway is cracked or outdated, then consider replacing it with interlocking pavers.

5. Transition Flower Boxes To Fall: Replace tired summer blooms with fall favorites, such as mums or autumn sage. When those start to fade, cut them back and tuck in evergreen branches for a simple way to keep things looking fresh into the holiday season.

A little upkeep now can go a long way toward maintaining your home's charm— and saving you time and effort later.

Canadian real GDP fell by 0.1 per cent in June, after declining by 0.1 per cent in May. Goods-producing sectors fell 0.5 per cent, while service-producing industries increased by 0.1 per cent. Sectoral growth was led by retail trade (1.4 per cent), wholesale trade (0.5 per cent), and construction (0.3 per cent). The biggest detractors from growth were from manufacturing (-1.5 per cent) and utilities (-1.2 per cent). Output for the offices of real-estate agents and brokers rose by 3.1 per cent month-over-month. Preliminary estimates suggest that real GDP by industry increased by 0.1 per cent in July.

Real GDP declined by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, registering an annualized growth rate of -1.6 per cent. Contraction was driven by a broad-based slowdown in trade, with exports and imports falling by 7.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. Business investment fell by 0.6 per cent, driven by slower investment in machinery and equipment (-9.4 per cent).  Meanwhile, slightly higher investment in residential structures (1.5 per cent) was offset by its non-residential counterpart (-3.3 per cent). Household spending rose 1.1 per cent in the second quarter, while the household savings rate fell a full point to 5.0 per cent, driven by weakening income growth. On a per capita basis, GDP fell 0.4 per cent in Q2 after increasing by 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

As many feared, the consequences of tariffs on the Canadian economy are reflected in this print, with Q2 GDP growth falling below the Bank of Canada's most recent projection. Contraction is largely attributable to far lower trade, offsetting the export growth which propelled the economy forward during Q1 as companies tried to get ahead of tariffs. Moreover, the associated uncertainty of volatile trade policy hampered investment from Canadian businesses, creating a further drag on growth.  This report could influence the Bank of Canada towards a rate cut during their next meeting in hopes of re-igniting the economy moving into the fall. Moving forward, the Bank of Canada will closely watch next month's inflation data for signs that core inflation is moderating to its 2% target, such that it can more confidently commit to a 25-point cut in September.

For more information regarding British Columbia's GDP growth, please visit our Nowcast for an estimate of economic activity throughout the province:

https://infogram.com/1pd36dxvpnw629umvzqqzd69rrskqe1dm5k

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.

https://mailchi.mp/bcrea/canadian-economic-growth-real-gdp-q2-2025

Summer’s long days and late nights can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule. If you’re feeling the effects now, then you’re not alone.

September is the ideal month to reset your circadian rhythm. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 15 to 20 minutes of early-morning sunlight, reducing screen time after 8:30 p.m. and adding magnesium-rich foods, such as pumpkin seeds or dark leafy greens, into your routine.

Consistent sleep and wake times are key.

Try winding down with a book instead of a scroll, and make your room as dark as possible. Yes, even that blinking router light counts. If you prioritize rest now, then your fall energy will thank you later.

To view the full interactive BCREA Commercial Leading Indicator, click here.
To view the full Commercial Leading Indicator PDF, click here.  

The BCREA Commercial Leading Indicator (CLI) fell 0.3 points to 152.4 in the second quarter of 2025, while the six-month moving average rose to 152.5. Compared to the same quarter in 2024, the index was up 2.9 per cent. 

Second Quarter Highlights:

• The economic activity index fell in Q2 by 0.9 points. Contraction in this index was driven by lower inflation-adjusted wholesale trade (-5.1 per cent) and manufacturing sales (-4.5 per cent), which offset growth from retail sales (2.0 per cent).

• The overall employment component increased by 0.5 points in the second quarter. Growth in office employment (2.3 per cent) offset a modest fall in manufacturing employment (-0.5 per cent), suggesting a steady level of job creation through the first half of the year.

• The financial component of the index increased in the second quarter by 0.3 points. Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) prices rose by 6.4 per cent, pushing the component up. Additionally, interest rate spreads remained virtually unchanged from the previous quarter, indicating a similar level of short-term risk in the economy.

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.

Think you don’t have time for a hobby? Think smaller. Micro-hobbies bite-sized activities that take 5 to 10
minutes are trending during 2025 by offering a loweffort way to recharge your brain without overhauling your schedule.

Popular picks include doing origami, learning one word in a new language each day, partaking in five-minute sketches and brewing a perfect cup of tea. These quick bursts of creativity or calm act like mental palate cleansers by helping reduce stress and boost focus.

They’re also surprisingly habit-forming; what starts as five minutes can easily turn into something more meaningful. And in a world that’s always rushing, these tiny rituals offer a gentle way to slow down.

About BCREA’s Housing Monitor Dashboard

The BCREA Economics team has created the Housing Monitor Dashboard to help REALTORS^® monitor BC’s housing market. This dashboard, which is updated monthly, provides up-to-date data on key variables for public education and use. Focuses include: 

• Resale Home Market

• Construction

• Rental Market

• Borrowing Costs

• Other BCREA Data

In the dashboard, the image and data are available for download under each chart, where possible.

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how most changes don’t start with a big decision—they start with a feeling. A quiet discomfort. A flicker of curiosity. A thought you keep brushing off because it isn’t “urgent” yet, but it keeps coming back anyway.

Maybe it shows up as restlessness. Maybe as a craving for more calm, more space, more energy that feels like your own. Sometimes it looks like rearranging a room. Sometimes it looks like unsubscribing from things that used to matter. Either way, it’s real—and it’s worth listening to.

We often wait for clarity before we take action. But in my experience, clarity usually follows motion. The first step is rarely a big one—it’s usually a conversation, a decision to explore, or simply the act of saying something out loud that you’ve been holding inside for a while.

If any part of your life feels like it’s ready to shift—your environment, your pace, your energy—I’d be honored to help you think it through. You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to keep paying attention.

In the meantime, I hope you’re giving yourself permission to pause, recalibrate, and move at your own speed.

In the moment,

Gino Pezzani

Canadian retail sales increased by 1.5 per cent to $70.2 billion in June compared to the previous month. Compared to the same time last year, retail sales were up by 6.6 per cent. Furthermore, core retail sales, which exclude gasoline and automobile items, were up 1.9 per cent month-over-month. In volume terms, adjusted for rising prices, retail sales increased by 1.5 per cent in June. Quarterly retail sales rose 0.4 per cent in the second quarter.

Retail sales in British Columbia were up 1.5 per cent in May from the previous month and rose by 10.2 per cent compared to the same time last year. In the CMA of Vancouver, retail sales were up 2.0 per cent from the prior month and were 12.4 per cent above the level of June 2024.

June's report represents a rebound in retail activity from the previous month, with sales rising to their highest level this year. However, over 25 per cent of business respondents reported negative tariff impacts through changes in final prices and demand. While this report favours another rate hold, markets remain uncertain about the Bank of Canada's decision in September as core inflation stabilizes near its upper limit and economic growth remains weak.

https://mailchi.mp/bcrea/canadian-retail-sales-july-2025

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.

There was a time when silence was expected and was built into the fabric of daily life.

Think about Sunday afternoons, unplugged dinner tables, walks without earbuds, and the hum of a city before the 24/7 noise loop of pings, podcasts, sirens, and scrolling.

Now, silence feels rare and almost indulgent.

Yet it’s making a comeback—not just in wellness retreats or remote cabins but in cities, architecture, and even luxury branding. Developers are marketing soundproof windows, minimalist homes promise “visual quiet”, and some high-end hotels now include silence as an amenity. Copenhagen even has a “silent bike lane” where talking is discouraged.

During 2019, The Atlantic dubbed silence “a new luxury good,” citing how hard it is to find it in modern life and how deeply we crave it when we do.

However, silence is not only aesthetically pleasing. Studies show it boosts memory, lowers blood pressure, and increases neurogenesis in the brain. Only two minutes of quiet can be more restorative than listening to relaxing music.

In a world that won’t stop talking, the decision to go quiet, intentionally, even temporarily, is a power move.

If you find yourself closing the door, pausing the podcast, or simply sitting in your car a few minutes longer after work, then that’s your nervous system saying, “thank you.”

Canadian prices, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose 1.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis in July, down from a 1.9 per cent increase in June. Month-over-month, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI was up 0.1 per cent in July. Downward pressure on headline inflation was driven by a sharper fall in gasoline prices year-over-year compared to June. The CPI ex-gasoline has held at 2.5 per cent over the past three months.  Additionally, shelter price growth rose for the first time since February 2024, with prices growing by 3.0 per cent in July, slightly up from 2.9 per cent in June. Food purchased in grocery stores rose at a faster pace of 3.4 per cent year-over-year compared to 2.8 per cent the previous month. In BC, consumer prices rose 1.7 per cent year-over-year in July, down from 2.1 per cent in June. The Bank of Canada's preferred measures of median and trimmed inflation, which strip out volatile components, are 3.1 per cent and 3.0 per cent year-over-year, respectively.

July's CPI report continues to show a divergence between headline and core inflation, largely due to monthly fluctuations in energy prices. The Bank of Canada's core measures of inflation have remained at the upper end—and even outside of—their target range for the past three months as tariffs continue passing through the economy. With 3-month annualized core inflation dropping a full point to 2.4 per cent, this report slightly favours a rate cut from the Bank of Canada in September, as the downside risks to growth remain strong from ongoing trade uncertainties. 

https://mailchi.mp/bcrea/canadian-inflation-july-2025

For more information, please contact: Gino Pezzani.