April 28th Mortgage Industry Update
April 28th, 2020 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on April 15th that its overnight lending rate will remain at 0.25%. The prime rate remains 2.45%. The possibility of further rate reductions remains unclear at this time as the economy deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally this week:
– Forum Research survey: 6% of respondents said they missed their mortgage payment recently due to the ongoing pandemic. Of those who had already missed a payment, 76% said they will miss another before the pandemic ends. 46% said they were denied mortgage assistance.
– TRREB: Greater Toronto saw 1,654 home sales in the first 17 days of April; 69% drop from 2019. New listings fell 64% to 3,843. Average prices were 1.5% lower than 2019 to $819,665. Down approximately 12% from the first half of March when the average was $931,788.
– Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index: Prices were up 0.6% in March from February this year; double the average rise for March over last 10 years. Index up 3.8% from March 2019, its strongest pace since June 2018. Prices up in 7 of 11 metropolitan areas in the index.
– Research Co. and Glacier Media found that almost three in four Canadians (73%) expect more people to work from home than before once the COVID-19 outbreak ends. Canadians aged 55+ are more likely to foresee this change (77%) than those aged 35-54 (73%) and those aged 18-34 (70%).
– National Rent Report from Bullpen Research & Consulting and Rentals(.)ca: Average rent in Toronto dropped by 1.2% between February and March 2020. Average rents for condo apartments declined 4.1% from $2,648 per month in March 2019 to $2,539 per month in March 2020.
– Statistics Canada: Unemployment rate has jumped to 7.8 per cent as more than 1 million Canadians lost their jobs in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The employment decline in March was larger than in any of the three significant recessions experienced since 1980”.
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.
