The below is a personal opinion and is based on a few assumptions that may be a bit off due to me being lazy/sloppy: current lowest fixed rate is 4.1%, lowest fixed rate during pandemic is 3.5% in Feb 2022 before rates began rising (I realize unadvertised rates went lower especially the variable rates). I'm also assuming people focus on monthly payments rather than overall mortgage, especially as they tend to compare monthly rent to mortgage. Edit: to add, most numbers came from a quick google search and could be off, feel free to edit in your head.

For a million dollar mortgage it's a change from $4267 to $3865 with 20% down. In comparison a rate of 3.1% would get you $3835. So basically this represents nearly a 1% drop in interest on monthly payments.

The lowest rate during the pandemic was 3.5% (Edit: it's been pointed out it went down to almost 2.0%). So this represents a rate lower than the pandemic (Edit: at least lower than the posted rates, probably the 4.1% will go down ~0.5% in a few weeks due to the recent cuts so it balances out somewhat). But will this result in a covid housing boom? Perhaps. For one thing this only applies to new builds or new buyers for homes under $1.5 mil. However, what people don't realize is a new buyer is not necessarily a new buyer. There is a period of time where this status can reset (which I myself am waiting for as I cosigned my moms mortgage).

Another factor is that people go by rent payments to price. Rents have skyrocketed since Feb 2022 with rents only going down somewhat recently. Thus since covid rents are higher than before. In comparison, home prices spiked in mid 2022 after rates starting coming up, then tanked to below their covid high.
https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-rents-outpace-income-for-the-first-time-in-60-years-bmo/
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/01/15/the-most-splendid-housing-bubbles-in-canada-nationally-18-in-december-from-peak-toronto-20-even-in-calgary-house-prices-dropped-end-of-easy-money/

So not considering the economy and just going by monthly payments versus rent, this change represents payments going down more than during the covid boom while rent is up higher than during the boom. However, there are obviously a lot of other factors at play than the simple mortgage payment versus rent equation.

For one is the median income. This seems to never matter in our market but hey let's consider it here. The median person makes $67k before tax (Edit: it's been pointed out other sources say lower). Let's make that $134k gross. A 30 year mortgage should have 6 years as the down payment so 134k with a 40% tax rate, $80,400 and 30% of after tax income saved for a down payment*6 years=$144,720.

Maximum purchase price in Ontario: $688k. Mortgage $2620 a month. That assumes no extra expenses.
The average purchase price in Ontario is $879k
https://wowa.ca/ontario-housing-market

So we are definitely getting closer but the median person is not buying the average home. What is interesting to consider is the average rent in Ontario is $2351. On a $688k home the interest would be $2351/month at 4.1%. Somehow they are exactly even, what a coincidence. So we're now break even between renting or a mortgage, but that obviously doesn't consider the cost of maintenance, depreciation or property tax on the home. So it seems like owning will make sense if mortgage rates come down just a little more or rents go up. With the recent 0.5% rate cut we may see mortgage rates come down even more, especially if they cut 0.25 in spring.

My personal opinion based on what we saw during covid and the math is that buying will began to make sense for a lot of renters in Spring 2025 with the bottom of the market seeing large demand as buying becomes more profitable than renting. Whether we also see strong activity for homes above $688k isn't supported by the math, but is supported by logical inference given what we have seen before.

(Edit: even if my covid rate is off, it doesn't change the math between rent and mortgage payment)