Month: October 2016
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) issued its quarterly housing market assessment and outlook today, suggesting that, for the first time ever, there are “problematic conditions” in housing markets at the national level in Canada (see table below for details). As well, CMHC expects national housing starts and MLS sales to decline slightly in 2017 before…
October 19, 2016
Category: Articles
Bank Of Canada, October 19, 2016 – Bank on Hold As Housing Expected to Slow
It is no surprise to anyone that the Bank of Canada maintained its target overnight rate at 1/2 percent today, judging that the underlying trend in total CPI inflation will edge upward to 2 percent starting early next year. Temporary offsetting factors, such as the fall in commodity prices and the decline in the loonie…
This morning, The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released its national real estate statistics for September, which showed a modest uptick in home sales nationally, as new listings ticked up and home prices increased once again. For Canada as a whole, the number of homes trading on the MLS Systems increased 0.8% month-over-month in September…
A perfect example of the unpredictable volatility in the Canadian jobs report, the September gain of 67,000 jobs was dramatically larger than economists’ expectations of roughly 7,500 new jobs. Most of the rise was in part-time work, however, and it was boosted by 50,000 additional self-employed workers, which tempers the excitement over the outsized strength…
Yesterday, Ottawa unveiled major initiatives to slow housing activity both by potentially discouraging foreign home purchases and, more importantly, by making it more difficult for Canadians to get mortgages. As well, the Finance Minister is limiting the degree to which mortgage lenders can buy portfolio insurance on mortgages with downpayments of 20% or more. Ottawa…