Housing starts key to housing supply
Posted on Sep 18, 2022
Statistical analysts know that you can sometimes cherry-pick to make numbers do what you want, and such could be the case in the latest news from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, commonly referred to as CMHC.
For example, in a recent article, CMHC pointed out that the "trend in housing starts" was up slightly from July to August: 267,309 uni...
Bank of Canada overnight rate now over 3 per cent
Posted on Sep 07, 2022
The widely-anticipated interest-rate increase was confirmed on Wednesday by the Bank of Canada. This was the bank's announcement:
"The Bank of Canada today increased its target for the overnight rate to 3¼%, with the Bank Rate at 3½% and the deposit rate at 3¼%. The Bank is also continuing its policy of quantitative tightening.
"The global and Canadi...
Inflation figures from Statistics Canada
Posted on Aug 16, 2022
Inflation affects everything, including real estate, and inflation up-and-down statistics appear almost daily. They are often accompanied by interpretations from people who specialize in interpreting statistics. With that in mind, some of the latest inflation figures from Statistics Canada — British Columbia-specific — are below, and without interp...
New listings show modest rise from 2021
Posted on Jul 25, 2022
It’s still a small sample size but June listings were up in B.C., according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. A shortage of listings, more than anything, is considered to be the biggest factor in the current real estate climate.
The June-to-June comparison from 2021 to 2022 showed an increase of 5.5 per cent in new listings. New listings in J...
Interest rates just one reason for higher prices
Posted on Jul 13, 2022
After the Bank of Canada raised its key benchmark rate by a whopping one per cent this week, everybody’s favourite analyst was telling people what the impact is likely to be. As for the housing market, the impact of a bank rate that is now 2.5 per cent — following the largest increase in 24 years — will naturally be felt.
It’s correct to say that t...
Still unknown: the impact of ‘working remotely’
Posted on Jun 29, 2022
Working remotely, otherwise known as “working from home”, has had a dramatic effect on life in general. Specifically, it has an impact on the housing industry because some people are looking for bigger homes, some people are looking for even more remote “homes” and some people are downsizing — or becoming first-time home buyers and working remotely...