Canadian Home Sales and Prices Set Another Record High in September Today’s release of September housing data by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows national home sales rose 0.9% on a month-over-month (m-o-m) (see chart below). This continues the rebound in housing that began five months ago amid record-tight market conditions. “Along with historic […]

Canada’s largest banks slash prime lending rates by Duffie Osental 18 Mar 2020 SHARE More stories about National Bank Bank of Canada cuts overnight rate again Rate cuts bring earnings headwinds, and gains, for Canada banks Rate-cut hopes fuel tentative rebound in Canadian stocks More stories about Royal Bank Rate cuts bring earnings headwinds, and gains, for Canada banks […]

Beginning today, the Bank of Canada is lowering its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to 0.75%. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 percent and the deposit rate is 0.50 percent. The unscheduled rate decision is the second in as many weeks. In a statement, the central bank stated this was “a […]

by Duffie Osental 13 Mar 2020 SHARE The total value of residential sales in British Columbia increased by over 40% in February compared to the same month in 2019, according to figures from the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA). BCREA reported that a total of 5,741 residential unit sales were recorded in February 2020, an increase […]

Another brutal Monday morning as oil lost a fifth of its value overnight as a clash between Saudi Arabia and Russia threatened to flood a world already hobbled by the Coronavirus outbreak with a glut of crude. Canada’s prairie provinces are sideswiped. View this email in your browser Global Markets in Turmoil, Oil Prices Plunge […]

Experts: Federal Reserve’s surprise rate cut will force Bank of Canada’s hand by Phil Hall 04 Mar 2020 SHARE More stories about Scotia BoC rate must be at 1.5%, think-tank’s fiscal policy council says RBC’s mortgage arm is way ahead of the pack BoC rate hold remains highly likely – economists Yesterday’s unexpected announcement by the U.S. Federal […]

 The Fed Brings Out The Big Guns In a remarkable show of force, the US Federal Reserve jumped the gun on its regularly scheduled meeting on March 18 and cut the target overnight fed funds rate by a full 50 basis points (bps) to 1%-to-1.25%. This now stands well below the Bank of Canada’s target […]

 Virus Anxiety Hits Canada As though things weren’t volatile enough, a new wave of virus terror is wreaking havoc on global financial markets. The novel conronavirus, COVID-19, continues to spread causing panic in worldwide stock and bond markets for the seventh day. Share prices have plummetted in Asia, Europe, the U.S. and Canada. The sell-off is fueled […]

Morneau Eases Stress Test On Insured Mortgages View this email in your browser Minister Morneau Announces New Benchmark Rate for Qualifying For Insured Mortgages The new qualifying rate will be the mortgage contract rate or a newly created benchmark very close to it plus 200 basis points, in either case. The News Release from the […]

Canadian Qualifying Mortgage Rate Lowered to 4.99% Market interest rates have fallen sharply since the coronavirus-led investor flight to the safety of government bonds. The 5-year government bond yield–a harbinger of conventional mortgage rates–now stands at 1.34%, down sharply from the 1.60+% range it was trading in before the virus became global news (see chart […]