October 2nd Mortgage Industry Update
October 2nd, 2018 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on September 5th that it’s overnight lending rate will remain at 1.50%. The prime rate thus remains 3.70%. Good news for variable rate mortgage holders as they can expect no changes to their rates! The common prediction currently stands at another rate increase for October’s meeting.
Additionally this week:
– Zoocasa report for most affordable markets reveals Thunder Bay is best, with an average price of $227,750 and an average median income of $66,163. Followed by Sudbury, Ottawa, Whitby, Waterloo. Toronto has median household income of $65,829 and average home price of $785,223.
– BILD: Price of new construction condos in Toronto region up 21.8% in August to an average $784,512, from 2017. Single-family home fell 12.4% to $1.13M. The number of single-family home sales up 50%, while condo sales took a slight dip by 1%.
– Sotheby’s International Realty Canada: Home sales for $1M+ in Toronto region bounced back after a slowdown earlier this year, climbing 19% in July and August from 2017. The increase was even greater = 34%, for a subset of transactions priced above $4M.
– CBRE: From 2012 to 2017, the region added some 82,000 jobs in technology, more than Silicon Valley and the most of any North American city. Agency now ranks Toronto as the 4th most important tech hub in North America, up from 12th place just two years ago.
– Environics Analytics: On average, national net worth increased by 8.5% last year, up to nearly $808,000. Much of the gains were locked into assets such as real estate. National average household debt rose by 4.5% while the average interest-expense-to-income ratio shot up to 6.4%.
– OREA has joined a growing a chorus of mortgage and real estate professionals who believe the stress test should be rescinded. “Our point of view at OREA reinforces the federal government to take a second look at the stress test”: CEO Tim Hudak.
Stay tuned for the next update!
For any questions and concerns please do not hesitate to call Harpreet Singh The Mortgage King at (416) 795-1919.