Canada Archives - Page 7 of 11

12Jun

Dirty money: it’s a Canadian thing

[Macleans - June 12, 2019] Canada’s housing markets are rife with shadowy buyers and greasy cash. B.C. was just the beginning. On paper, Peter Zhang and his wife, Judy Wang, were models for the type of newcomers Canada wanted to attract with its immigrant investor program. Before it was scrapped in 2014, the program’s aim was simple: lure the world’s wealthy to Canada’s shores with the promise of a passport. In return they would bring their business savvy, invest in the [...]

Canada, International Influence

25May

CMHC defends mortgage stress test changes amid calls for loosening rules

[CTV - May 23, 2019] The CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is forcefully defending mortgage stress test rules and warning federal policy-makers to hold the line amid calls for softening the measure from industry associations. "My job is to advise you against this reckless myopia and protect our economy from potentially tragic consequences," wrote president and CEO Evan Siddall in a letter dated Thursday to the Standing Committee on Finance. He urged the committee to "look past the plain self-interest" [...]

Canada

30Mar

B.C. Real Estate Association forecasts lower mortgage rates in 2019

[Source: Georgia Straight - March 28, 2019] That's according to the latest mortgage rate forecast from the B.C. Real Estate Association. The cost of borrowing for a home is predicted to get a little cheaper this year. "The average contract rate for 5-year mortgages has declined about 30 basis points from its peak in 2018, reaching 3.44 per cent in March," the BCREA states in a two-page report. "Unfortunately, this still means a stress test rate of 5.44 per cent, even for [...]

British Columbia, Canada, Economic Outlook

20Mar

First-time home buyers big winners in budget, but will incentives work in B.C.?

[Vancouver Sun - March 19, 2019] The federal budget offers incentives aimed at making housing more affordable for first-time buyers, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll work in the overheated B.C. housing market. “We’ll want to look at the details, we’ll want to take a look at whether it will assist people in communities where unaffordability really is a crisis and housing prices are very high,” said B.C. Finance Minister Carole James. “I think that will continue to be a challenge.” The [...]

Canada, Economic Outlook

10Feb

Uneasy Year of the Pig arrives for China – dependant BC companies

[BIV - February 4, 2019] Chinese New Year dawns on a jittery business landscape as Huawei dispute casts uncertainty over access to overseas markets. Not only is Chinese New Year one of the local community’s most celebrated holidays, it is also typically the time for B.C. businesses – especially those with ties to the Chinese market – to celebrate a year of gains while looking optimistically at the potential of more in the coming year. 2019, however, is not a typical year. [...]

British Columbia, Canada, Economic Outlook

10Feb

OSFI under pressure by banks, industry lobbyists to ease mortgage stress test: sources

[Financial Post - February 4, 2019] Supporters of easing say the stress test should be flexible and adjusted to account for interest rate moves and market conditions. TORONTO — Canada’s main financial regulator is coming under increasing pressure from banks and mortgage industry lobbyists to ease a stress test designed to cut out risky lending, but the regulator is expected to hold off on changing the rules, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Proponents of a change say [...]

Canada

19Dec

Modest Home Price Growth Forecasted for 2019

[The Province - December 12, 2018] TORONTO — Home prices across the country are expected to rise in 2019, but only at a moderate pace compared with recent years, according to two of Canada’s largest residential real estate brokerages. Royal LePage is anticipating the national median home price will increase by 1.2 per cent in 2019, with prices in Toronto and the surrounding areas expected to rise 1.3 per cent to $854,552. Home prices in Greater Vancouver are forecast to go up [...]

Canada, Economic Outlook

25Sep

Canadian borrowers will feel this week’s U.S. interest rate hike

[CBC News - September 24, 2018] The world's biggest central bank is expected to raise rates this week — and then keep raising them. With two eyes on the future, U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is expected to raise interest rates this week — and then keep raising them to keep inflation under control. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) Markets are so certain that U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will raise rates this week that a failure to hike would likely have worse consequences for [...]

Canada, Economic Outlook, International Influence

01Sep

Waiting to see if declines in real estate sales translate into falling prices

[Source: CBC News - August 14, 2018] The Canadian real estate industry is used to disregarding gloomy predictions. But now, after a decade of laughing in the face of repeated false warnings that a housing slump was imminent, most Canadians affected by real estate — in other words, just about all of us — have suddenly become a little more wary. No one disputes the meteoric rise in Canadian house prices has come to an end. The latest figures from both Vancouver and [...]

British Columbia, Canada, Economic Outlook

01Sep

B.C. Realtors still not allowed to openly publish home sale prices

Photo: John Barbisan, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board: home sellers have a right to privacy. [Source: Vancouver Courier - August 30, 2018] Toronto real estate agents ordered to release data to general public, while it remains restricted to real estate professionals in B.C. Last week, for the first time in Canada, the general public could see exactly what any home sold for through the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), but that information is not permitted to be published by [...]

British Columbia, Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver Real Estate