Canada quietly put real estate investors on notice, right before the holidays — probably hoping it slips under the radar. A newly re-elected Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) distributed mandate letters. These letters contain orders for the Minister to execute and are usually pretty dry. A big exception is the Minister of Housing’s mandate letter, […]
Canada is known around the world as a place with solid institutions and low levels of corruption. Apparently that claim is made with little data, since few people have ever seen it. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) outlined their recent experience in a blog post. They were hoping BC’s money laundering reports […]
Canadian and American real estate prices are both at frothy valuations, but look nothing alike. US Federal Reserve (The Fed) data shows home prices grew faster than incomes in Q2 2021 for both countries. The difference is, this has been a long-term trend for Canada since 2005. Meanwhile in the US, home prices have only […]
Canada’s real estate industry is ratcheting up expectations for next year. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is forecasting huge growth for the average home price in 2022. Just six months ago, they had been expecting the boom in 2021 to be followed by slow growth. Now in a market flooded with easy money, they […]
Canadians often complain mortgage interest isn’t tax deductible, like in the US. Some argue this is a trade off for the capital gains exemption Canadian homeowners have. However, one of the worst kept secrets in finance is mortgage interest can be turned into a deduction. One of those strategies is the Smith Maneuver, created by […]
Canadians tapped a lot more equity than their home equity line of credit (HELOC) balances show. Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) filings show loans secured by homes jumped in October. HELOC debt is the most common type of loan secured by homes, but represents just a small share of the debt. Homeowners […]
Canadians are re-evaluating their housing situation, and it’s sending many to new provinces. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows a significant interprovincial migration in Q3 2021. This is the flow of Canadians looking to improve their quality of life by moving to a new province. Since Ontario’s home prices have begun to surge, the province […]
Canada’s housing supply is about to explode in growth as developers scramble to meet demand. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data shows new starts surged in November. Most of the building is in cities where existing-home inventory is under pressure from elevated demand. Urban starts of new homes fell just short of hitting another […]
Canadian mortgage debt is getting so large that it now rivals the economy’s output. Bank of Canada (BoC) data shows mortgage credit reached a new record high in October. Households have a strong appetite for housing debt, still printing high growth. That might change soon, though. The latest data indicates much less mortgage debt has […]
Time for your cheat sheet on this week’s top stories. Canadian Real Estate Canada Has The Biggest Gap Between Real Estate Prices And Incomes In The G7 Canada has the most significant gap between real estate prices and incomes in the G7. The price to income ratio reached 164.8 in Q2 2021, up 19.8% from […]
