Canadian real estate saw the fewest home sales in over a year, as the market continues to cool. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) data shows existing-home sales fell in August. Despite falling, the month printed the second biggest number ever. Sales are also still much higher than normal. That said, it was a very sharp […]
Canadian housing supply plays a role in home price growth, but doesn’t explain all of it. The Bank of Canada (BoC) published a paper on Canadian Housing Supply Elasticities. In it the researchers explain supply plays a big role, but not to the extent we’ve seen. Over the short-term, it fails to explain the extreme […]
Canadians must be hoping for a recession every year, since they’ve never made more money. A National Bank of Canada (NBC) analysis shows household wealth surged in Q2 2021. Their wealth actually surged so fast, the ratio of debt hasn’t looked smaller in almost 2 decades. The bank expects this to fund a significant spending […]
Canadian real estate has long been frothy, but how does it look compared to other countries? According to the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) exuberance index in Q1 2021, pretty bad. Only two G7 countries are considered exuberant markets (a.k.a. bubbles) — Canada and Germany. Those two countries are also the longest-running bubbles of any […]
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 […]
Canadian real estate and capital gains taxes are once again in the spotlight. This week the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh promised to crack down on “big money” house flippers. This strategy largely involves hitting them with a 75 percent capital gains rate. Owners feel this will unfairly target them. Supporters think this will encourage more productive […]
