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April 9th, 2019 Mortgage Industry Update

The Bank of Canada announced on March 6th that it’s overnight lending rate will remain at 1.75%. The prime rate remains 3.95%. The common prediction currently stands at the Bank of Canada might either keep rates still for 2019, or the potential for one further increase.

Additionally this week:
– TREB President: “The stress test provisions and mortgage lending guidelines generally, including allowable amortization periods for insured mortgages, should be reviewed”. The board says the stress tests continues to limit the ability of some buyers to qualify for a mortgage.

– Royal LePage CEO: “We are expecting this to be a sluggish year overall in Canada’s residential real estate market, with the hangover from the 2018 market correction and weaker economic growth acting as a drag on home price appreciation”.

– TREB: 7,187 homes were sold across the GTA last month, virtually unchanged from a year earlier with 7,188 sales. The average price was up 0.5% ($3,821) to $788,335. New listings in the month were down by 5.1% year-over-year to come in at 13,996.

– Zoocasa study: From 30 major US and 5 Canadian markets, Calgary real estate can be considered the most affordable. On the other end of the spectrum, Vancouver has Canada’s most expensive housing market and places second overall in terms of unaffordability, after San Francisco.

– RBC’s aggregate housing affordability measure reduced by 0.7% points to 51.9% last quarter (measured as a share of household income vs cost of living). First improvement in a long time, after more than three years of declining affordability.

– Rider Levett Bucknall: There are 104 cranes set up in Toronto’s core, up from 97 in July. More than America’s three biggest cities combined (28 cranes in New York, 44 in LA, and 26 in Chicago). Toronto is only North America’s fourth-largest city.

 
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.