Home Prices Up 17% in September, But Some Signs of Cooling Emerge The average home price in Canada surpassed $600,000 for the first time ever in September and home sales jumped nearly 46% compared to a year ago. But, beneath the headline-grabbing details from the Canadian Real Estate Association’s latest housing report, there were some […]

Pandemic Has Increased Homebuying Intentions Among Young Canadians There may be uncertainty on the horizon for the country’s real estate market, but young Canadians are undeterred and remain optimistic about the prospect of buying a home. Nearly one in five young Canadians aged 18-34 say the pandemic has accelerated their plans to purchase a home […]

Latest in Mortgage News: CMHC to Get New Name, Maybe “Housing Canada” What’s in a name? Well, in the case of the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation, “mortgage” likely won’t be for much longer. The housing agency announced last week that it will be undergoing a rebranding in the coming months to better reflect its […]

Big Banks Still Dominate Mortgage Market Share, Says CMHC Big banks originate nearly 7 out of 10 (67%) of new Canadian mortgages, although their market share has fallen slightly from last year, according to CMHC. Of total mortgages outstanding, the big banks hold 72% of those loans, down from 75% in 2018, according to the […]

BANK OF CANADA RELIES ON QUANTITATIVE EASING As promised, the Bank held its target overnight rate at the effective lower bound of 25 basis points with the clear notion that negative policy rates are not in the cards. Instead, the central bank will rely on large-scale asset purchases–quantitative easing (QE–of at least $5 billion per […]

Latest in Mortgage News: OSFI Changes Rules for Mortgage Deferrals OSFI, Canada’s banking regulator, announced today it will start phasing out special regulatory capital treatment of deferrals given improving economic conditions. The changes are effective immediately for mortgage payment deferrals granted by the Big 6 banks through to the end of September. Those deferrals will […]

Don’t Let Closing Costs Catch You Off Guard First-time homebuyers are often on a tight budget, where every dollar is carefully accounted for. Yet, many report confusion when told how much money to bring to their lawyer’s office to complete their home purchase. It’s often thousands more than they expected. Why is that? And how […]

Home Prices Set New Record High, Sales Surpass Pre-COVID Levels Continuing the upward trend that started in June, home sales bounced back to pre-COVID levels in July, soaring 30.5% year-over-year. Home prices, too, set a new record high of $571,500, a 14.3% increase from July 2019, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported on Monday. Excluding the higher-priced […]

RECORD-SETTING CANADIAN HOUSING MARKET IN JULY Canadian Housing Market Very Strong in July Today’s release of July housing data by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) showed a blockbuster July with both sales and new listings hitting their highest levels in 40 years of data. This continues the rebound in housing that began three months […]

COVID SUPERCHARGES CANADIAN HOUSING– YET CMHC STILL GLOOMY Pandemic Triggers Red-Hot Summer Housing Market We will get the full story on July housing in Canada when the Canadian Real Estate Association releases its July data in the next few days, but local real estate boards have reported a robust July market. Even in Calgary, year-over-year […]