March 14th, 2023 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on March 8th that its overnight lending rate will remain at 4.50%. This was the first hold-still since they started increasing rates a year ago. Inflation has started to inch lower. Latest data remains in line with the expectation that inflation will come down to around 3% in the middle of this year. Prime remains at 6.70%.
Additionally this week:
– BoC holds overnight rate at 4.50%! First hold-still since started increasing rates year ago. Inflation has started to inch lower. Latest data remains in line with expectation that inflation will come down to 3% in the middle of this year. Prime remains 6.70%.
– RBC Economics said that Canada’s housing market was still in the process of correcting itself but showed signs of “gradually letting up”. RBC expected housing activity to bottom out “sometime this spring”. Sees the market downturn headed towards its conclusion.
– Investment in GTA’s commercial real estate market amounted to $22.3 billion for the whole of 2022, down just 5% from 2021’s record-breaking volume, according to Avison Young’s latest analysis. Q4 2022 saw commercial activity fall by 17% quarterly and by 51% annually.
– TRREB: Benchmark home price rose for the first time in 11 months. Prices up 1.1% monthly to $1.09M in February. Prices still down nearly 19% from their peak last year. Number of sales in February up 8.5% from a month earlier to 5,224 transactions on a seasonally adjusted basis.
– CIBC: $52 billion worth of its mortgage portfolio relates to mortgages in which all of fixed contractual payments are currently being applied to interest as of January 31. 27% now have an effective amortization of 35 years or longer.
– TransUnion: During Q4 2022 credit participation saw increases across every province, with Ontario leading the way (3.2%). Canada’s total outstanding credit balance grew by 6.8% annually to $2.3 trillion, reaching a new record high for the second straight quarter.
– BNN Bloomberg in October found that 53% of homeowners are feeling concerned about higher payments when their mortgages come up for renewal, with those aged between 18 and 54 especially likely to be worried. 52% of homeowners already have a plan in place for the higher payments.
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.
