Canada’s central bank finally acknowledged inflation is a monetary policy issue. Bank of Canada (BoC) governor Macklem dumped the transitory inflation narrative today. In a speech to Toronto’s CFA Society, he explained rising interest rates are just one monetary policy tool they’ll use going forward. The other is quantitative tightening (QT), a program designed to […]
Greater Toronto real estate is still a tight market, but all of a sudden it has a lot more inventory. Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) data shows prices ripped higher in February. Positive price growth news didn’t just end there though, as the market actually saw annual growth accelerated. Oddly enough, this occurred as […]
Canadian real estate prices just turned the least affordable it has been in decades. A National Bank of Canada (NBF) analysis shows affordability worsened in Q4 2021. They found this was the case for every quarter last year, as low rates encouraged higher prices. As the overnight rate rises, housing affordability is expected to further […]
Canada’s central bank made its first interest rate hike since slashing it down to nearly nothing. The Bank of Canada (BoC) announced it will raise the overnight rate today, marking a path to rate normalization. Today’s hike was widely expected, and the first of many that are forecast over the next two years. Rising rates […]
Canadian politicians promoted a number of housing affordability measures during their campaign. The ones played up the most were vacancy taxes and non-resident speculation measures. Now that they’re in office, they aren’t so keen on actually implementing any of them. This might be due to a piece of paper buried pre-election — a threat of […]
Canadian household budgets aren’t just getting hit by inflation — they’re taking home less too. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows household disposable income contracted in Q4 2021. This is the second consecutive quarter disposable income dropped, and it’s been a significant decline from the peak. Not great, but expected as the economy improved and […]
Canada’s central bank is overwhelmingly expected to hike interest rates aggressively. We polled the country’s top finance experts for their overnight rate forecast. Nearly all expect the Bank of Canada (BoC) to hike rates tomorrow. They don’t see the rate hikes ending there, though. Over the next year, they see interest rates rising aggressively to […]
Greater Toronto new home sales ripped to a new high last month. BILD and Altus Group data shows new homes had the biggest January ever, with tight inventory. Despite the perfect conditions for higher home prices, they did the opposite. The cost of a typical single-family home fell by tens of thousands of dollars, while […]
Canadian mortgage borrowers still in the market aren’t worried about higher interest rates, apparently. Bank of Canada (BoC) data shows new mortgage loan annual growth was negative in December. The majority of the remaining activity was issued with variable interest rates. It might not be obvious, but variable mortgage costs are essentially a bearish bet […]
Time For your cheat sheet on this week’s most important stories. Canadian Real Estate Canadian Real Estate Bubble Sentiment Is Collapsing Fast: US Federal Reserve Data Canadian real estate bubble sentiment is collapsing but remains frothy. A US Federal Reserve model shows Q3 2021 was the 26th quarter the market showed exuberance. That means the […]
