March 19th, 2024 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on March 6th that its overnight lending rate will remain at 5.00%. Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate at 5.00%! The Canadian economy looks to be operating in modest excess supply. The Bank continues to expect inflation to remain close to 3% during the first half of this year before gradually easing. The prime rate remains at 7.20%.
Additionally this week:
– The value of Canadian farmland rose 11.5% in 2023, a new report by agriculture lending firm Farm Credit Canada has found. Chief economist J.P. Gervais said while that’s a slight slowdown from the growth in 2022, it’s still a rapid pace given cooling economic conditions overall.
– TRREB Condo Market Report: Condo sales in the fourth quarter of last year were not only down 3.4 per cent on an annual basis with 3,446 units sold, but also the lowest quarterly sales recorded in the region since TRREB first began publishing condo market data in Q3-2011.
– CIBC: Credit growth is at lowest since the 1980s, signalling the tough times brought on by the central bank’s efforts to control inflation. This has left both mortgage and consumer credit growth barely above zero, worse than during the 2008 financial crisis and 1991 recession.
– Wahi: In February GTA saw 25% (76 of 303 total) of its neighbourhoods get into overbidding territory, from 0% the month before. An additional 5.6 per cent (17 neighbourhoods) were selling at asking price, while 69.3 per cent (210 neighbourhoods) were in underbidding territory.
– Urbanation: Toronto landlords were asking $2,803 on average for a rental unit in February — down slightly from $2,832 last month and 1.3% annually. Were listing one-bedroom units for $2,495 on average, down 0.6% on a month-over-month basis and 0.2% from a year ago.
– Urbanation: Average asking rent for apartments in Toronto fell 1.3% annually. Drives a 10.5% increase in prices nationwide. Average rental listing in Canada reached $2,193 in February, the fastest yearly growth since September 2023. That’s a 21% increase from February 2022.
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.
