Residential Market Commentary - Taking a pause, but for how long?
Mar 15, 2023
The Bank of Canada has stepped to the sidelines bringing an end to a 12-month string of interest rate increases that pushed its trend-setting Policy Rate from 0.25% to 4.50%. The question now is: How long will the Bank stay on the sidelines?
Right now, there are plenty of market watchers who expe...
The Bank of Canada appears ready to step to the sidelines at its next interest rate setting, on Wednesday. The central bank says it wants to pause its current round of rate hikes and let the effects soak in across the economy. There have been eight increases over the last year, pushing the trend-s...
The current wave of economic uncertainty does not seem to be drowning Canadians’ optimism about the housing market.
The annual Canadian Real Estate Industry Trends Report from Re/Max suggests nearly one-third (32%) of Canadian home buyers and sellers have a positive sense that the market could bec...
Residential Market Commentary - Declines continue. Is the bottom in sight?
Home sales in Canada resumed their downward trajectory in January, reversing a modest up-tick in December.
The latest figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association show that the number of properties changing hands las...
The Bank of Canada’s trend-setting policy rate is fixed until March, and the Bank’s leadership is proclaiming a “conditional pause” in the rate-hiking cycle. That has led to a growing notion that interest rate cuts are coming. Some forecasts say the Bank could pivot from raising, to lowering, by t...
Today, the Bank of Canada increased its overnight benchmark interest rate 25 basis point to 4.50% from 4.25% in December. This is the eighth time since March 2022 that the Bank has tightened money supply to address inflation.
While the headline increase will certainly make news, it is the Bank’s a...
The Economic Club of Canada is our country’s most respected platform for non-partisan dialogue among the world’s most notable thought leaders. Its annual outlook breakfast is its signature event. This year, the breakfast featured four of the country’s top chief economists responding to a series of q...
The Bank of Canada has a target rate for inflation, which is the rate at which the prices of goods and services are expected to increase over time. The target rate is 2%. However, the latest data shows that the inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 6.3% in December, which i...
Residential Mortgage Commentary - Inflation & interest rates: lead characters for 2023
January 9, 2023 |
A lot of the recent talk in financial and real estate circles has been centering on the possibility of a pause in the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest rate increases. Some speculate that could happen at the next rate setting, later this month.
The Bank raised rates seven times last year in an...
The colder weather has arrived and there is a definite chill in Canada’s real estate market. The latest figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association show sales, prices and new listing were all lower in November.
Sales slipped 3.3% between October and November and dropped 38.9% from a year ea...
With inflation running at generational highs and interest rates on the rise many debt-strapped Canadians are struggling to reorganize their finances.
A recent survey sponsored by FP Canada (an organization that represents and promotes professional financial planners) suggests “unconscious spending...
The news on the economy, inflation and the future of interest rates has been mixed over the past week or so. Most of the recent analysis has centered on employment.
Market watchers were surprised by the latest job numbers which shot up by 108,000 in October. The unemployment rate did not move ho...
High inflation and increasing interest rates have a lot of Canadians keeping a close watch on their finances and for many, housing is a key concern.
The latest consumer survey by the credit monitoring service Equifax suggests that just 50% of Canadians are comfortable with their personal economic...
The Policy Rate rose by one-half of a percentage point (or 50 basis-points) to 3.75%. The majority of market watchers had predicted a 75 basis-point bump. The smaller than expected increase appears to be an indication the BoC is nearing the end of this rate-hiking cycle. But it is not done yet.
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Today, the Bank of Canada increased its overnight benchmark interest rate 50 basis point to 3.75% from 3.25% in September. This is the sixth time this year that the Bank has tightened money supply to quell inflation, so far with limited results.
Some economists had assumed the increase this time...
Another interest rate increase by the Bank of Canada is all but a done deal. Even though inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell slightly to 6.9% in September, it remains well above the Bank’s 2.0% target.
Price relief at the gas pumps gets the credit for the decline but s...
Since interest rates started climbing back in March there has been a lot said about declining home prices in Canada. Broadly speaking, market watchers have been forecasting a 20% to 25% drop – from the February peak – in the average price by the end of this year.
Those are dramatic numbers, but t...
Residential Mortgage Commentary - Home ownership on hold Uncertainty begets hesitancy and that is painfully true in the housing market right now. Two of Canada’s big realtors are out with surveys that suggest the desire for home ownership remains strong, but it will a dream deferred for many buyers...
Inflation and rising interest rates are having a very real affect on Canadian spending habits and housing affordability according to a pair of new reports.
The latest survey by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that nearly 90% of Canadians are “tightening their belts” as a result of rising costs,...
Home sales in Canada declined for a sixth straight month in August according to the latest report from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Compared to July the number of properties changing hands dipped by a modest 1.0%, the smallest drop so far. Year-over-year, sales are down 24.7%.
Home pric...
As expected the Bank of Canada has raised its trend setting interest rate. It jumped by another, outsized, three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.25%. This has triggered a series of knock-on effects in the lending and mortgage markets.
The move puts the BoC’s policy rate above its self-declar...
Today, the Bank of Canada increased its overnight benchmark interest rate 75 basis point to 3.25% from 2.50% in July. This is the fifth time this year that the Bank has tightened money supply to combat inflation. While the latest increase was comparatively smaller than the move made in July (100 bas...
Residential Mortgage Commentary - When will the BoC pause interest increases?
September 7, 2022 |
September has arrived and the central bankers are back from their summer vacations. With that they will resume setting interest rates and fighting inflation.
The Bank of Canada, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are all making rate announcements this month. Market watchers ar...
Aug 17, 2022
Sales are slowing, prices are falling, interest rates are rising and affordability is getting worse in the Canadian housing market.
The Bank of Canada’s latest Housing Affordability Index (HAI), for the first quarter of this year, shows households now have to dedicate 42.8% of dispo...
Aug 10 2022 The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer have been hot across much of Canada and consumer sentiment seems to be wilting.
Recent data from the non-profit research foundation, Angus Reid Institute, suggests three-quarters of Canadians feel now is a bad time to make a major purchase. Cars, t...
Residential Mortgage Commentary - Despite challenges, desire to own is still strong
August 3, 2022 |
Aug 3, 2022
The current situation in the Canadian housing market has both buyers and sellers stepping to the sidelines. But underneath all of the recent shuffling there still seems to be a firm, foundational desire to own a home.
The annual affordability survey conducted by RE/MAX suggests risi...
Crystal-ball gazing to predict the economic future can be a murky business. And some of the latest polling of Canadian economists shows just how opaque the view can be. The Globe and Mail surveyed 15 prominent Canadian economists about what, they think, is going to happen.
There is general agree...
Today, the Bank of Canada increased its overnight benchmark interest rate 100 basis points to 2.50% from 1.50% in June – the largest single increase in almost 25 years. This is also the fourth time this year that the Bank has acted to tighten money supply to combat the possibility of an entrenched i...
Another one of the country’s big financial institutions has produced a survey that suggests Canadian homebuyers and homeowners are unclear about what is happening with rising interest rates. Last month it was one of Canada’s major insurance companies. Last week it was one of the big banks.
While...
With inflation and interest rates continuing to rise there are renewed concerns about housing affordability in Canada.
Statistics Canada pegged the inflation rate at 7.7% in May, its highest level in almost 40 years. That set the stage for further speculation that the Bank of Canada would likely...
The outsized interest rate hike by the American central bank, last week, is sending ripples through Canada’s housing market.
The U.S. Federal Reserve took the very rare step of boosting its trend-setting rate by 75 basis points at its June 15th setting. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also se...
There is a growing sentiment among market watchers that the Bank of Canada’s current fight against inflation is putting home prices in the crosshairs.
In the release of the Bank’s annual Financial System Review, Governor Tiff Macklem mentioned a desire for “moderation” in the housing market severa...
Inflation and consumer confidence are running in opposite directions in Canada.
The April figures from Statistics Canada put the annual inflation rate at 6.8%, up from 6.7% in March and now at its highest level in 31 years. Key drivers of the increase include food and shelter costs. Food rose by...
With interest rates now on the rise, two perennial questions have popped up again: How much? How fast?
Traditionally the Bank of Canada has used 25 basis points, or one-quarter of a percentage point, as the standard increment for any interest rate move up, or down. Occasionally the Bank will mo...
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