Canadian household indicators are showing their debt problems are rapidly resurfacing. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows the ratio of household debt to disposable income surged in Q2 2021. This measure indicates debt is growing faster than the rate of income. Debt as a ratio of income has actually never seen such fast annual growth […]
Canadian debt is dirt cheap, but it won’t be this cheap forever, warns BMO. Douglas Porter, the bank’s chief economist, expects the cost of borrowing to remain “low for long.” He just doesn’t see it being quite as low as the current stimulus driven environment. As governments taper stimulus to fund its spending, borrowing rates […]
Either the Canadian real estate bubble is now a bubble on a bubble, or old enough it should be in school. The US Federal Reserve (the Fed) released its quarterly exuberance index for Q1 2021. The index, used to determine country-level housing bubbles, shows Canada is well into one. The unusual circumstances make it unclear […]
Canada’s largest bank might be your landlord in the not-so-distant future… if they aren’t already, at this point. The RBC Global Asset Management (GAM) Canadian Core Real Estate Fund entered into an agreement to buy half of a real estate portfolio from Quadreal this week. The deal comes as more investors are crowded out of […]
Canadian politicians promise to “fix” housing affordability if elected this year. Just one problem — all of their plans will increase home prices, not make them more affordable. That’s the take from Finder‘s 15-person monetary policy panel. The Fintech regularly polls Canada’s top economists for their take on monetary policy. This time they asked for […]
The Canadian economy still has a long way to go before it’s recovered — possibly further than thought. RBC economist Josh Nye said today’s Bank of Canada (BoC) rate decision was widely expected. The central bank made no changes, reiterating the importance of quantitative ease (QE). Canada’s largest bank sees a risk of QE tapering […]
One of Canada’s top issues this election is housing, and as usual, we’ve been getting a lot of questions by email. Instead of answering each email individually, we’re going to cover what feels like our regular election platform breakdowns. In separate pieces, we’ll drop an unbiased look at the policies promised, and the intended (or […]
Greater Toronto and Vancouver real estate price growth further decelerated last month. Both boards reported the rate of annual growth fell in August. Surprisingly low inventory, typical during election periods, helped to firm prices though. It may even be enough to return the trend to growth this month. At least for the near-term. Greater Toronto […]
Canada’s household savings rate soared, as generous benefits met few places to spend. At least, that was the narrative. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows most households saved very little in 2020. The top two-fifths of incomes are responsible for Canada’s elevated savings rate. The bottom two-fifths of households didn’t save anything at all, but […]
The Canadian economy defied odds, and became more dependent on real estate investment. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) residential investment data shows a surge in current dollars for Q2 2021. The most recent quarter showed a massive climb — much bigger than GDP in general. This pushed residential investment’s share of the economy to a new […]
