Housing Market Correction Gains Steam in May Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that the slowdown that began in March in response to higher interest rates has broadened. In April, national home sales dropped by 12.6% monthly (m/m). National home sales fell by 8.6% between April and May, building […]

Thank you to one of our preferred lenders, First National, for the below insight!       May 17, 2022 First National Financial LP   Canada’s housing market is cooling down but it is still hotter than the long-term average and will likely stay that way for the next couple of years. The latest Housing […]

Canadian Housing Market Feels The Pinch of Higher Rates Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that the slowdown that began in March in response to higher interest rates has broadened. In April, national home sales dropped by 12.6% on a month-over-month (m/m) basis. The decline placed the monthly activity at […]

Labour Market Bumps Up Against Capacity Constraints Job vacancies abound in many sectors, yet employers have trouble finding workers to fill those jobs and retaining workers with so many options available. As the jobless rate falls to new record lows, net new employment has slowed. This is not dissimilar to the housing market, where supply […]

Affordable Housing Is A Key Theme In Federal Budget 2022 Today’s budget announced a $10 billion package of proposals intended to reduce the cost of housing in Canada (see box below). The fundamental problem is insufficient supply to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population base. Thanks to the federal government’s policy to rapidly increase immigration […]

New Listings Finally Show Some Life Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that national home sales were up in February 2022 as buyers jumped on the first spring listings. The number of newly listed properties surged a welcome 23.7% from extremely depressed levels, hopefully portending a much-needed increase in supply […]

Canada Reached Full-Employment in February Statistics Canada released the February Labour Force Survey this morning, reporting a much more significant than expected 336,600 net new jobs, with the unemployment rate falling a full percentage point to 5.5%. This is the first time the unemployment rate fell below its pre-Covid level and reinforces the expectation for […]

Was expected and has finally started, great summary by our Chief Economist, Dr Cooper …….       Bank of Canada Starts Hiking Rates, Signalling More To Come  The Governing Council of the Bank of Canada raised the overnight policy rate target by a quarter percentage point in a widely expected move and signalled that […]

Wanted: Home Sellers Housing affordability remains a huge political issue, and with the Department of Finance working on the upcoming budget, no doubt measures to reduce home prices will be front and center. With an election coming this spring in Ontario, Premier Ford’s Housing Affordability Task Force has made recommendations to step up homebuilding. Still, […]

Great insight from our Chief Economist Dr Cooper!   No Wonder The Bank of Canada Didn’t Hike Interest Rates Last Month Statistics Canada released the January Labour Force Survey this morning, reporting a much more extensive than expected decline in jobs last month. The Omicron shutdowns and restrictions took a much larger toll in Canada […]