In an effort to tame a runaway housing market, Canada is banning foreigners (students, foreign workers or foreigners who are permanent residents) from buying homes in the country for two years. Canadian home prices have risen by over 50 percent in the last two years, which is spurting the move. The Canadian government is also looking to address the high demand by streamlining new-home permitting and to allow under-40 potential homebuyers to save for down payments tax-free in a new financial vehicle. The Canadian Real Estate Association, for its part, is looking to change the practice of buyers who make offers not seeing the offers of other buyers by publishing offers on listings in real time on its listing website realtor.ca. These are interesting moves for a government to take to address housing shortage and affordability issues running rampant.