May 8th Mortgage Industry Update
May 8th, 2018 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on April 18th that it’s overnight lending rate will remain at 1.25%. The prime rate thus remains at 3.45% with most lenders. The 5 year posted rate has increased with most lenders and is between 5.14-5.59%. Fixed rates are rising due to recent changes in the bond market.
Additionally this week:
– TREB: Home sales are off to the worst start in 9 years. Fewest transactions to start a year since the 2009 recession. April itself was one of the weakest months in the past 15 years for sales. Down 32.1% compared with a year ago. Average selling price was $804,584, down 12.4%.
– Urbanation: Condo construction in the Greater Toronto Area passed a milestone in the first quarter of 2018, surpassing 60,000 units for the first time ever. Reached 61,337 units with an additional 37,389 in pre-construction marketing (89% pre-sold).
– Total residential mortgage credit grew just 0.3% on average over the last three months, the slowest since 2001, Bank of Canada data show. That’s down from 0.47% at the end of 2017, and about half the average 0.57% pace over the past twenty years.
– Statistics Canada: Real gross domestic product grew 0.4 per cent in February after a slight pullback of 0.1 per cent in January.
– CMHC: Canada’s housing sector is facing a high degree of vulnerability to market instability for the seventh straight quarter, with Toronto, Hamilton, Vancouver and Victoria shouldering the brunt of the risks.
– The homebuying budgets of Canadian millennials shrank by 16 per cent or just over $40,000 following the introduction of tougher mortgage qualification rules in January, according to a new study by Royal LePage.
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.
