06:52 AM EDT, 10/10/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Bank of Montreal (BMO) said a recent Globe and Mail opinion piece argued that population growth is not a major driver of housing prices and, at best, plays a secondary role.

The piece cited Charlotte, North Carolina, as an example, noting that the city's population has expanded far faster than other major urban centers over the past two decades, yet home prices there have not climbed as quickly as in Montreal, the bank said. According to BMO, there are two issues to consider:

1) Using the author's own data, the bank finds there is, in fact, a significant and positive relationship between population growth and home prices. Charlotte is a random outlier and doesn't detract from the broader, obvious positive and important relationship between population growth and real home prices.

2) On Charlotte specifically, there was a 29% spike in its reported population in 2010 alone, clearly a definition change. Adjusting for that anomaly brings it much closer to the trend line.