Time for your weekly cheat sheet on this week’s top stories.
Canadian Real Estate
Toronto Real Estate Leads The Country In Average Price Declines, Saint John Pops Higher
Ontario is seeing the fastest declines in average sale prices, while Eastern Canada is moving higher. Toronto led the decline with an average sale price of $804,584 in April, a 12.6% decline from last year. Thunder Bay had an average sale price of $217,745, an 11.9% decline from last year.
The fastest rising markets are Saint John, and Saguenay. Saint John had an average sale price of $199,136 in April, a 22.9% increase from last year. Saguenay had an average sale price of $202,729, a 15.8% increase. Bonus points to you, if you could plot either of those cities on a map.
Reverse Mortgage Debt Resumes Climb In Canada After A Brief Pause
House rich, cash-strapped Boomers are increasingly looking to tap their home equity using reverse mortgages. The outstanding balance reached $2.404 billion in March 2018, up 2.44% from the month before. This represents a 24.57% increase compared to the same month last year.
Canada’s Fastest Cooling Real Estate Markets Are In Greater Toronto
Canada’s fastest cooling real estate markets this April are all located in Southern Ontario. Toronto’s sales-to-new listing ratio (SNLR) fell to 46.4%, down 36.18% compared to the year before. Niagara saw the SNLR fall to 62.8%, a 29.2% decline compared to the same time last year.
The markets starting to warm up are all located East of Toronto, with Ottawa and Halifax taking the lead. Ottawa saw the SNLR reach 67.6%, up 17.16% from last year. Halifax saw the SNLR rise to 60.7%, up 14.96% from last year. Both markets made a huge leap on the SNLR, but are just a touch above “balanced” territory.
Toronto Real Estate
Toronto Households Have Over $384 Billion In Debt, And Over 80% Is Tied To Real Estate
Toronto households owe over $384 billion in debt, with real estate responsible for the majority. $268 billion worth of mortgage debt makes up 70% of the total. Another $45 billion is outstanding home equity line of credit (HELOC), 11.8% of the total. The remaining $71 billion is consumer debt.
Vancouver Real Estate
Vancouver Households Have Over $185 Billion In Debt, Most Of It Is Real Estate
Greater Vancouver household debt reached $185 billion at the end of 2017, with the vast majority tied to real estate. Over $133 billion of the total debt was tied to mortgages, representing 72.4% of the balance. Home equity line of credit (HELOC) reached $24.58 billion, 3.3% of the total debt. The remaining $24 billion is consumer debt.
Montreal Real Estate
Montreal Households Owe Over $176 Billion, And Real Estate Is Only A Part Of It
Montreal household debt climbed to $176 billion at the end of 2017. Mortgage debt tallied up to $118 billion, representing 67% of the total balance. Home equity line of credit (HELOC) represents $21.11 billion, which is 12% of total debt.
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There are good debts and there are bad ones. Banks will continue to make people feel that they deserve to amass debts because they worked hard for it. Anyone old enough to get a loan should be wise enough to know that efforts should be made to pay down debts gradually and that anything otherwise becomes increasingly unsustainable. That doesn’t require rocket science to understand.