Rate cuts not enoughThe Financial Post reports in its Friday, July 5, edition that with national home prices treading water, real estate inventory growing and housing affordability still atrocious, last month's quarter-point rate cut from the Bank of Canada, while helpful, was the economic equivalent of bringing a butter knife to a gunfight. The Post's regular guest columnist Robert McLister writes that Canadian real estate and over-leveraged borrowers need a bigger saviour. He says a measly 25 basis point drop in average mortgage rates only translates into a little more than 2 per cent improvement in payment affordability (home buying power). Hence, the psychological boost from the BOC's initial cut of the cycle can only take the market so far. What real estate really needs is to wake up the sleeping giants -- sidelined buyers. On top of domestic housing demand, Canada has seen its population rise by a record 1.27 million in the 12 months through June 30, 1.06 million in the period before that and 0.54 million in the 12 months before that. The Post says in the last three years, we have seen 2.87 million new housing seekers emerge. That is more than the entire population of Manitoba and Saskatchewan combined.