April 6th Mortgage Industry Update
April 6th, 2021 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on March 10th that its overnight lending rate will remain at 0.25%. The prime rate remains 2.45%. The Bank of Canada suggests that they will more than likely keep rates at this “effective lower bound” until 2023, as they observe the full effects of the pandemic. Due to recent increased confidence in the markets, fixed rates have been slightly increasing.
Additionally this week:
– Citing data from Statistics Canada, Brookfield Institute report said 17% of employers likely to offer the work-from-home option once pandemic eases. 29% likely to require employees to return on-site. 8% of companies likely to make reductions to their currently occupied spaces.
– Sales of homes worth more than $4 M surged 157% in January and February from a year earlier, brokerage Sotheby’s International Realty Canada said in a report. By contrast, data from the TRREB for the same period showed sales across all price ranges rose 52%.
– Mortgage Professionals Canada report: As of end of 2020, estimated that Canada had around 10.01 M owner-occupied dwellings, with approximately 6.08 M of these having mortgages. For homes purchased last year, 77% of mortgages were fixed rate, 18% variable rate, 5% a combination.
– BMO report: Canadians have amassed as much as $100 billion in excess savings. In survey of 1,000 Canadians looking to buy a home in the next 12 months, found that 80% of first-time buyers among respondents intend on using some/most of increased savings to boost their down payment.
– New data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation showed that mortgage deferrals represented 86% of all consumer debt deferred. On average, the per-loan balance of deferred mortgages was $270,597. In comparison, the average balance for all outstanding mortgages was $219,077.
– RBC poll found that 46% of Canadians consider servicing existing debt as their top financial priority, representing a six-point increase from March 2020. Meanwhile, saving for retirement fell by seven points to 49%, reaching its lowest rate in nine years.
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.