Good morning. Today we’re covering the new inflation report, the housing market’s continued troubles, and the possibility of using AI as a personal financial advisor.

Today’s reading time is 2.5 minutes.

Price change from the past week as of December 15, 2025 at 12:21 PM EST.

Canadian inflation stayed flat at 2.2% in November, in line with expectations, as cooling services prices offset a jump in grocery costs. The Bank of Canada's preferred core measures eased to 2.8% from 3%, signalling underlying price pressures are gradually fading. The not-so-great news? Grocery prices jumped 4.7%, the biggest increase in nearly a year, with fresh fruit, beef and coffee leading the way. On the quirky side, travel costs dropped partly because Taylor Swift was in Toronto last November, skewing the comparison. Economists say there's nothing here to rattle the central bank, which held rates steady at 2.25% last week. Markets don't expect any rate moves until at least late 2026.

86% of Canadians are confident they can spot a scam, yet 1 in 4 have already been victim to one. With holiday shopping in full swing, that overconfidence could cost you.

New poll data reveals the gap between perception and reality is growing:

AI is making scams harder to detect. What used to be obvious red flags now look perfectly legitimate.

Your move: Stay vigilant. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Take extra protective steps, educate yourself on evolving scam tactics, and don't let a "deal" compromise your security.

Learn more about protecting yourself.

Canada's real estate market had another down month in November, with national home sales dropping 11% year-over-year and average prices falling 4% to $674,800. Sellers are cutting prices to close deals before year-end, with Vancouver, Toronto and southwestern Ontario seeing the steepest drops. Mortgage rates have stabilized — five-year variable rates sit at 3.45%, the lowest since spring 2022 — and experts say that predictability could finally coax buyers off the sidelines by spring 2026. Royal LePage forecasts single-family home prices will edge up 2% nationally next year, while condos dip 2.5%. It expects that Quebec City, Montreal and Regina will be the hottest markets, with gains of 5-12%, while Toronto and Vancouver will see more price declines.

If you've ever wondered whether AI chatbots can actually help with money management, one Ontario tech entrepreneur says yes — with caveats. Taki Wong uses Google's Gemini as a DIY financial adviser, manually inputting his monthly expenses and letting the AI flag bad habits. So far, it’s helped him slash his dining-out spending from $600 to $200 a month and cut streaming subscriptions from $300 to $50. The key word here is "manually" — Wong doesn't connect any bank accounts, just types in the numbers himself. This is something we’re interested in exploring more in 2026. Having a chatbot with context about our situation that we can consult anytime on financial decisions seems helpful, but at the same time we worry about AI’s tendency to hallucinate, which creates obvious problems when it comes to personal finances.