If you follow the real estate market—and who doesn’t nowadays?—you’ve likely noticed growing speculation about new mortgage rules. Home prices are seemingly out of control, with national average prices up a shocking 25% y/y — amid a recession no less. “Canada hasn’t had a market overheating of this scope since the late 1980s,” says RBC. A growing chorus of analysts...
If you’re hoping the mortgage stress test gets easier—so you can qualify for bank financing—you’ve got more waiting to do. Canada’s banking regulator, OSFI, says it’s not ready to adjust the stress test just yet, despite proposing last February to ease it. OSFI spokesperson Michael Toope tells us: “On March 13, 2020, OSFI suspended all of its consultations and policy...
The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.—John Maynard Keynes (1937) Canada’s Liberal government ripped a page out of Keynes’ playbook Wednesday, promising to use “whatever fiscal firepower is needed” to rebuild the economy and recover “one million jobs.” That includes multi-billion-dollar-price-tag initiatives like extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy through summer 2021, making...
On March 13, 2020, our banking regulator suspended its work on improving Canada’s uninsured mortgage stress test. Its decision was made in response to challenges posed by COVID-19. Prior to that, OSFI had indicated that a new and improved stress test would start as soon as April 6, 2020, pending public consultation and review. At the time, the regulator acknowledged...
Canada’s Finance Minister influences the mortgage market more than any other politician, and now we’re getting a new one. Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who’s held that role since November 4, 2015, is out. He resigned today. To say Morneau was pro-mortgage tightening is an understatement. The 57-year-old Liberal cabinet minister presided over numerous impactful changes to Canada’s mortgage market, including:...
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