Southseacompany pointed out this article where Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is reported to have said that low interest rates have done their job.
So what exactly was the job of low interest rates?
Three years ago the BOC was issuing warnings that real estate in Canada was as much as 30% overvalued in some markets and posed a threat to the financial system.
How’s that concern looking these days ?
It’s that time of the week again… Friday Free-for-all time!
This is our standard end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:
–That one fix they haven’t tried
–Credit, can’t get enough of it
–Always a good time to buy
–Domestic investors bought 1 in 5
–Fake stats?
–Toronto price fall
–Why every bubble looks like normal
–
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
The Bank of Canada is still worried about housing debt levels in Canada and joins the OECD in expressing that concern:
The two biggest concerns on the bank’s radar are also intertwined. It said the growth in mortgage lending in Toronto and Vancouver has largely fuelled an increase in Canada’s overall household indebtedness since the bank’s last review six months ago.
“Highly indebted households have less flexibility to deal with sudden changes in their income,” said the bank.
“As the number of these households grows, it is more likely that adverse economic shocks to households would significantly affect the economy and the financial system.”
The document was released as concerns about the Canadian real estate market — domestically and from abroad — continue to pile up.
Read the full article over at the Financial Post.
The recent BC first time buyer loans program announced by the liberal government has successfully driven condo prices higher by handing out interest free loans from tax payers to first time buyers, but it sounds like David Eby and the NDP want to ruin that party:
“We were told by economists at SFU, UBC, CMHC that the impact of the program would be to increase the cost of the housing stock,” says Eby.
“Essentially a transfer of money directly to developers and people selling their existing homes, and put people further into debt. So if that is truly the impact of the program in Metro Vancouver, then that’s something we want to review and make sure there’s not a better way we could allocate the $700-million that’s been allocated to that program.”
Read the full article over at News 1130.
Here’s how the numbers looked for new listings, price changes, properties sold and total listings for last week.
tldr: everything up, total listings slid slightly down to start the month.