Interest Rates & Commodity Prices Surge On Economic Rebound Optimism. Canadian 5-Year Bond Yield Surges  In an unprecedented move, bond yields are spiking around the world. Yields globally are now at levels last seen before the coronavirus spread worldwide. At the same time, commodity prices are surging, including energy, metals and minerals, agricultural products and lumber. […]

Latest in Mortgage News: BoC Sees Early Signs of Housing Overheating, but Will Keep Rates Low for Now Fixed rates may be heading higher, but variable-rate holders can rest assured their rates won’t be going up just yet, at least according to Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. During a speech on Canada’s labour market, Macklem said […]

Canadian Home Sales Hit An All-Time Record High in January. Housing Continued to Surge in January Today the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released statistics showing national home sales hit another all-time high in January 2021. Canadian home sales increased 2.0% month-on-month (m-o-m) building on December’s 7.0% gain. On a year-over-year (y-o-y) basis, existing home […]

Canadian Home Prices Set New Record High in January. Should We Be Worried? It should come as no surprise that home prices continued their upward trajectory in January, setting a new all-time record. The average price reached $621,525, a 22.8% year-over-year (not seasonally adjusted) gain from a year earlier, reported the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Home […]

Canada’s ‘Energizer Bunny’ Housing Market: 2021 Forecasts The Canadian real estate market defied gravity last year in spite of a global pandemic and nationwide lockdowns. The year ended with the seasonally adjusted MLS Home Price Index up 13% year-over-year with the average house price surpassing the $600,000 mark. “It’s official, despite all the challenges, 2020 […]

Bank of Canada Still Expects No Rate Increases Until 2023. The Bank of Canada, this morning, released its January Monetary Policy Report (MPR), showing they expect to keep overnight interest rates at its “effective lower bound” of 0.25% until 2023 (see chart below). To reinforce this commitment and keep interest rates low across the yield […]

2020 Was a Blockbuster Year for Housing Despite the fears leading into the pandemic last Spring, 2020 marked a record number of home resales as new listings lagged and prices climbed. December housing data released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) today shows national home sales surged 7.2% month-over-month (m-o-m) at a time of […]

Canadian Jobs Market Tanks in December. Canadian employment fell 62,600 last month, a bit weaker than expected, following seven months of recovery (see chart below). The rapid rise in COVID cases and the ensuing lockdown measures in many key regions caused the net loss in jobs in the mid-December survey.  Especially hard hit were workers at […]

Now that the page has finally been turned on 2020, we wanted to take a look back at how mortgage rates fared over the course of what was a tumultuous year. It’s safe to say that COVID-19 stole the show in terms of the year’s biggest newsmaker. On the mortgage front, one of the biggest […]

Canada’s Jobs Recovery Slowed Again in November With Second Wave The Canadian economy rebounded sharply in the third quarter, posting its most rapid expansion ever. Still, it was a lower than expected gain, and early data show that momentum is quickly fading in the face of a second wave of the pandemic. Gross domestic product rose […]