Tausi Insider

A new report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says government alone can’t solve the country’s housing challenges. The report by CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth says the scale of the problem is so large that the private sector must be involved. The national housing agency says rent subsidies and more social housing are helpful, but more needs to be done. It says there must also be increased supply of housing aimed at the market. Home prices have eased this year as the real estate market has cooled, but they are coming off record levels earlier in the pandemic. The report says the imperative of increasing housing supply will be even greater as Canada seeks to attract more immigrants. https://www.tausiinsider.com/government-cant-solve-housing-issues-alone-private-sector-must-be-involved-cmhc-report-says/?feed_id=332358&_unique_id=645d53d77b13e

Ask many economists and they’ll tell you mortgage rates – both fixed and variable – are likely coming down in 2023. Ask the Bank of Canada and it would probably say, “Don’t get too optimistic.” Year-over-year inflation is still “way too high,” Tiff Macklem, the bank’s Governor, warned this week, and the latest inflation report shows it coming down too slowly. The Bank of Canada is likely not even remotely contemplating rate cuts, despite the bond market fully pricing in two cuts of 25 basis points each within 12 months. (A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.) So, what if the Bank of Canada is right and the bond market is wrong? Could borrowers hold out at today’s rates, which remain near 14-year highs? Borrower liquidity is key Recession notwithstanding, it’s possible that rates could get stuck near today’s levels – for much longer than we think. Or worse, rates could surprise the market and climb to new highs – just like they surprised the world in 1979. What would c...

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in December slowed five per cent compared with November. The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in December was 248,625 units compared with 263,022 in November. The drop came as the annual pace of urban starts fell five per cent to 227,708. The rate of multi-unit urban starts dropped four per cent to 182,850, while the pace of single-detached urban starts fell 11 per cent to 44,858. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 20,917 units for December. The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts was 269,930 in December, down one per cent from 273,801 in November. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadas-annual-pace-of-housing-starts-slowed-in-december-cmhc-says/?feed_id=323944&_unique_id=63e8da9185dca