The overall level of risk to Canada’s financial system remains largely unchanged from six months ago, the Bank of Canada said today in the Financial System Review (FSR). The Bank continues to highlight two key vulnerabilities related to Canadian households: high levels of indebtedness and housing market imbalances. A third ongoing vulnerability is the potential for fragility in fixed-income market liquidity.

Nonetheless, the Canadian financial system remains resilient as the nation’s economy improves and financial reforms in Canada and worldwide progress.

Since June, the proportion...

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has updated its forecast for home sales activity via the Multiple Listing Service^® (MLS^®) Systems of Canadian real estate Boards and Associations in 2016 and 2017.

Canadian housing market trends have evolved largely as expected since CREA last published its forecast in September. Sales activity in British Columbia is showing signs of returning to, and stabilizing at, more normal levels, while Ontario sales continue to set new records despite an unprecedented supply shortage in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and throughout the surrounding region...

According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales were down on a month-over-month basis in November 2016.

Highlights:

• National home sales fell 5.3% from October to November.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity remained 1.6% above levels in November 2015.
• The number of newly listed homes edged down 0.4% from October to November.
• The MLS^® Home Price Index (HPI) in November was up 14.4% year-over-year (y-o-y).
• The national average sale price climbed 7.3% y-o-y in November.

The number of homes trading hands via Canadian MLS^®...

REALTORS® and the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) welcome the announcement by Premier Clark and Minister Coleman of the new BC Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program. 

“The introduction of this program will address the affordability gaps that, as a REALTOR®, I hear about every day,” says BCREA President Deanna Horn. “We thank Premier Clark and Minister Coleman for introducing this valuable program to assist first time home buyers in entering the marketplace.” 

The province has taken steps to address housing affordability by investing...

The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that 6,419 residential unit sales were recorded by the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in November, down 20.1 per cent from the same month last year. Total sales dollar volume was $4.02 billion in November, a decline of 25.2 per cent compared to the previous year. The average MLS® residential price in the province was $625,871, a decline of 6.4 per cent compared to the same month last year. 

“Moderating consumer demand in the province’s largest population centres continues to trend home sales toward the tenyear...

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Long-term bond yields jump following election of Donald Trump to President

• Canadian economy’s strong third quarter probably will not last

• Bank of Canada on hold but bias may tilt toward rate cut 

Mortgage Rate Outlook

What a difference a few months can make. Early in the fall the Federal government made sweeping changes to mortgage qualification rules, the most prominent being the requirement  that all insured homebuyers qualify at the posted 5-year fixed rate. The change in qualification rules for homebuyers means that the posted 5-year...

The trend measure of housing starts in Canada was 199,135 units in November compared to 199,641 in October, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

“Housing starts kept a steady pace in November as upward trends observed in British Columbia and the Prairies offset downward trends recorded in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “We’re also seeing that housing starts are on track to have moderated...

At Special General Meetings held at six real estate boards on Tuesday, more than 67% of REALTORS® voted yes to a proposal to amalgamate with the British Columbia Real Estate Association to form REALTORS® of BC.

However, while three of the boards voted in favour of amalgamation, three boards didn't reach the required voting threshold. Therefore, the proposal did not achieve critical mass to move forward.

Here are the results from the participating boards:

The Bank of Canada announced on December 7^th, 2016 that it was keeping its trend-setting target overnight lending rate at 0.5 per cent.‎

The Bank is currently taking a wait-and-see approach amid heightened uncertainty on a number of fronts, including the actual policy outcomes of the U.S. election.

On balance, the Bank said there remains “a significant amount of economic slack” in Canada.

Indeed, underlying inflation pressures are actually lower than various Consumer Price Index measures might suggest due to past exchange rate depreciation. That said, this phenomenon is fading at...

The BCREA Commercial Leading Indicator (CLI) increased 0.48 index points to 122.7 in the second quarter of 2016, in spite of a modest pull-back in economic activity throughout the third quarter. The CLI index is up 2.4 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2015. 

“Job growth in key commercial sectors and robust consumer demand led the CLI higher in the third quarter,” said BCREA Economist Brendon Ogmundson. “A rising CLI points to continued strength in BC commercial real estate activity in 2017.” 

Robust third quarter employment gains offset modest declines in...

Home buyer and seller activity remains near historical averages in the Metro Vancouver* housing market.

Residential home sales in the region totalled 2,214 in November 2016, a decrease of 0.9 per cent from the 2,233 sales recorded in October 2016 and a decrease of 37.2 per cent compared to November 2015 when 3,524 homes sold.

Last month’s sales were 7.6 per cent below the 10-year sales average for the month.

“While 2016 has been anything but a normal year for the Metro Vancouver housing market, supply and demand totals have returned to more historically normal levels over the last few...