KW Mortgage

CMHC Releases 2016 Third Quarter Results Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released its third quarter financial results today as well as supplemental data on the Corporation's Mortgage Loan Insurance, Securitization, and Covered Bonds business ...

New Mortgage Rules Will Sap Home Sales But Only Slow Prices: RBC They'll hurt resales. They'll only wound prices.

TD Economics

Data Release: Canadian housing starts still trending at 200k units

• New home starts pulled back to 193k annualized units in October, down from September's robust 219k unit pace. However, the 6-month moving average inched up slightly to 199.9k units.

• The bulk of the pullback stemmed from the multi-unit sector, which slid 15% during the month. Meanwhile, single-detached starts were down by 5%. Both came off strong double digit gains in the month prior.

• Regionally, new homebuilding activity was down nearly across the board, with Ontario (+20%) the only region to record an increase in October. This is the opposite of the regional performance in September, when Ontario was the only province in which starts fell.

Key Implications

• On a trend basis, housing starts have been fairly steady over the last year at close to 200k units. While this pace has likely been appropriate given demographics, it is unlikely to be sustained for much longer.

• The new mortgage and tax regulations recently introduced by the federal government is expected to take some steam out of home sales, particularly in B.C. and Ontario which have accounted for the bulk of the gains so far this year. This should filter through to homebuilding activity as well. Indeed, following strong growth this year, we expect housing starts in B.C. and Ontario to record sizable declines next year.

• As such, we expect housing starts to slide to an average of roughly 180k units in 2017, from an estimated 194k units this year.

Housing risks best addressed by gov't: Poloz Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz says risks from household debt and the housing market will be better addressed by the government's recent policy moves than by adjusting interest rates. In a speech in Vancouver, the head of Canada's central bank says adjusting interest rates is a "very blunt to...

"Probably." :D

(Image courtesy of Colin Krieger)

CMHC calls for slowing housing market in 2017, but prices will continue to rise New construction to slow down next year as the market finally catches up to the reality that there are not enough people to live in the houses being built

Canadians have the third-largest homes, but they may downsize to deal with affordability: report Looking around the world, the average home size shrinks to less than 500 square feet in Hong Kong — last on the list of the 15 countries and regions studied

Canada has room to run deficits: Bank of Canada’s Stephen Poloz Comments support Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal government, which is set to run a deficit of $29.4-billion in the current fiscal year

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/10/24/stephen-poloz-deficits_n_12623360.html

BoC Chief: Don't Sweat Deficits, Canada Can Handle It Spending more on infrastructure would boost Canada's economy, Poloz argues.

Housing policy is being created for the whole country based on markets in Toronto and Vancouver There is almost a sense of bewilderment in places like Halifax and Edmonton or Montreal, where people wonder what overheated housing market anyone is talking about

Housing in Canada overheating but don't expect a collapse, according to new report Moody's Analytics maintains that prices in Canada will slow down as some markets see homes become overvalued and less affordable while international capital inflows slow down