No interest rate increase first good sign
Posted on Mar 08, 2023
The first indication of real estate market stability is now a fact. The Bank of Canada, as expected, did not raise the overnight interest rate, which the bank had been signalling ever since its eighth consecutive rate increase in January.. With the bank rate remaining at 4.5 per cent, it also means that mortgage rates will remain stable, the first...
Early returns about inflation in 2023
Posted on Feb 22, 2023
Making news in real estate this week…
INFLATION: The just-released January year-to-year comparison of the British Columbia Real Estate Association reports that the Consumer Price Index shows inflation is slowing…albeit modestly. The December-to-December CPI rose by 6.3 per cent, and January’s increase was slightly less, at 5.9 per cent. That was for...
Canadians better equipped; interest rates still uncertain
Posted on Feb 07, 2023
Here’s a couple of news items that you might find interesting…
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A study reported in The Financial Post implies that Canadian home owners are better equipped to cope with the increases in mortgage interest rates than they were a decade ago.
In the report, conditioned by RE/MAX Canada, a key metric called LTV Ratio — LT V stands for loan-to-value...
Eighth and perhaps final interest rate increase
Posted on Jan 25, 2023
Here is what you should know from the Bank of Canada, which just announced its eighth consecutive interest-rate increase, this one .25 per cent, a figure that was widely anticipated by financial analysts:
• It is expected to be the last of the increases that began early in 2022.
• The current rate is 4.5 per cent, and is expected to hold while the Ba...
Plan for provincial permit process
Posted on Jan 17, 2023
In what may be viewed as the first step in speeding up the permitting process for building homes, the B.C. Government has a plan to deal with the backlog at the provincial level. Or, as Premier David Eby put it: “remove obstacles to constructing new homes that families desperately need.”
Current regulations require builders to have multiple permit a...
Another avenue coming for first-time home buyers
Posted on Jan 10, 2023
Soon there will be another acronym to benefit first-time home buyers — FHSA. It will join TFSA and HBP as ways to encourage and assist people trying to get into the real estate market by purchasing their first home,
FHSA is the Tax-Free First Home Savings Account, and omitting TF from the front of the acronym is to avoid confusion withTFSA (Tax-Free...