Canadian Mortgage News Daily — May 17, 2021

.
Here’s a daily helping of fresh Canadian mortgage news (the italics are the Spy’s 2 cents).

Reader note: RateSpy’s mortgage news is now at → RATESDOTCA.

• Housing market moderates in April compared to March (CREA)
  • Prices shot up a record 41.9% year-over-year in April, a number that’s misleading given April 2020’s 10% drop. There is still just two months of inventory out there, however.

• Leading economist says measures taken to cool housing market won’t work: ‘If you believe that Toronto is unaffordable now, just you wait’ (The Record)

• Home Economics: Calls for rate hikes to cool housing, ways to invest tax refund (BNN Bloomberg)

• Raising interest rates to deal with Metro Vancouver home prices has pros, cons: expert (CityNews 1130)

• Exasperation with government grows among brokers (Mortgage Broker News)
  • This broker argues the stress test causes higher prices because people don’t list their existing homes when they can’t qualify for a mortgage. Really? Aren’t those same people also removed from demand because they can’t qualify?

• Revealed – what worries first-time home buyers the most (Mortgage Broker News)

• The Bank of Canada is charting a path toward a real estate crash (Toronto Star – Subscription)

• Condo Buyers Will Pay More for a Den, Even if Unit Size is the Same (Storeys)
  • Attention condo dwellers: Check if your coat closet will fit a small desk.

• ‘Worse and worse every day’: Home builders roiled by product shortages, volatile prices (The Globe & Mail – Subscription)
  • Building costs won’t always be this berserk. As we speak, lumber prices are falling like a rock—down 22% in one week.

• First-time homebuyers in B.C. increasingly anxious over insufficient down payments (Vancouver Sun)

• Almost Half of People in B.C. Under 40 Have Given Up on Dream of Buying a Home (604 Now)

• Vancouver real estate: properties flipped multiple times show prices can increase up to 555 percent (The Georgia Straight)

• Calgary’s a world-leader in value for earned dollars per square footage of home (Calgary Herald)

• GTA brokers, buyers call for more transparency in real estate bidding process (CBC News)

• There’s no ‘silver bullet’ for fixing Toronto’s housing affordability crisis. But here are five ways to ease the pain (Yahoo News)

Latest Mortgage Rate Outlook

More Canadian Mortgage News