Thoughts on the outward migration of labour
Posted on Nov 08, 2023
Businesses of every stripe seem to be having difficulty keeping employees, and part of the reason is the lack of affordable housing that’s not many kilometres and many traffic jams from work. The result, as raised in the current issue of Business In Vancouver, is an “outward migration of the labour force” from…pick an area.
While “Vancouver” would b...
No change in Bank of Canada interest rate
Posted on Oct 25, 2023
In an announcement that was greeted with both relief and expectation, the Bank of Canada decided to leave its overnight interest rate at five per cent. Accompanying the news release is a cautionary note that the Bank is prepared to raise the rate further if needed.
The effect of the stability of its "no change" decision, hopefully, will have a posit...
More from September real estate stats
Posted on Oct 11, 2023
As an extension of the real estate statistics from September, here are some one-liners that you may find interesting:
• Of the 578 detached homes sold in Metro Vancouver, the selling price for more than half (343) was between $1.5 million and $3 million.
• Of the 989 condos (apartments) sold in September, most of them (752) were between $400,000 and...
Immigration versus housing shortages
Posted on Aug 22, 2023
There are two facts in Canada which are indisputable: (1) Immigration targets are 465,000, 485,000 and 500,000 for the next three years, and (2) there is a country-wide urban housing shortage. In many quarters, that raises an obvious question about bringing more people to live in Canada when there already aren’t enough places to live.
When Bloomberg...
Reprieve from rates, recession and inflation?
Posted on Jul 25, 2023
Is there anything more tiring than hearing about interest rates and the economy, week after week, month after month? Well, it may be time for some good news.
As in…hearing next to nothing about both.
Perhaps.
Statistics Canada is reporting that inflation fell to 2.8 per cent, and that’s just within the Federal Government’s tolerance target of one to t...
The days of summer — hot and ‘humidex hot’
Posted on Jul 19, 2023
There is “How hot is it?”…and there is “How hot does it FEEL?” The definition of each — and the difference between them — is measured by Canadian meteorologists as the “humidex.” In the U.S., it’s called “heat index” and is calculated using a slightly different formula of combining temperatures and humidity.
As climate change evolves, more attention...