Tag Archives: increase

BC, Budget, economy, prices, rates

2013: Everything costs more

100
100 Comments

Well, maybe not everything…

You can probably pay less for a computer or a house, but many of the day-to-day expenses of living are going up around here.

As the new year rolled over there was a spate of announcement for rising taxes, user fees, premiums and fares in BC.

In Vancouver, homeowners will pay about three per cent more in 2013 on their property taxes and utility bills.

The cost of health care premiums is set to rise in the province, from $128 to $133 per month for a family, adding up to $60 per year, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Most of us would say, ‘OK, we can squeeze out five dollars a month somewhere,’ ” said spokesman Jordan Bateman.

But, he added, this is the fourth January premiums have increased and “it’s really starting to weigh down taxpayers.”

Federally, Employment Insurance and Canada Pension premiums will also increase.

Workers who make over $47,400 will pay $891, up $51 from last year, and employers will pay $1,247 in EI premiums, up $72. Workers and employers will both pay an extra $49 in CPP premiums, with workers paying $2,356 in 2013.

The cost of getting around is also going up.

Yep, Translink fares are going up too – a one zone fare goes from $2.50 to $2.75.  Also Tolls and BC Ferry fare.

For the whole list check out the original article in the Vancouver Sun.

BC, Budget, Canada, data, debt, economy, predictions

We love debt even more than Americans

96
96 Comments

Canadian consumer debt.  It’s not just growing, it’s growing faster.

Transunion has released their latest quarterly analysis and it shows Canadian household debt loads increasing 400% percent faster than inflation.

Statistics Canada pegs Canadian household market debt at an astounding 163% of disposable income.

For comparisons sake, the US housing bubble saw household debt peak in 2007 at 128% of disposable income.  By 2011 the US rate was down to 112%.

The good news? Credit card debt is actually down year over year and delinquencies across all types of debt remain low.

Transunion puts the average household non-mortgage debt at $26,768.  Do you owe more or less than that?

Higgins said the increase stands in stark contrast to encouraging signs from relatively stagnant debt growth in the prior three quarters.

He also points out that in the past five years, debt loads have increased 400 per cent more than the rate of inflation — with inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index up nine per cent and consumer debt jumping more than 37 per cent.

“Debt’s outpacing us and continues to outpace us, so at some point in time there’s going to be a reconciliation,” Higgins said.

“Hopefully it’s not drastic and hopefully it doesn’t hit everybody, but there’s going to be a correction somehow along the way.”

Read the full article over at the CBC.

Open Topic

A Question about Averages

119
119 Comments

Can somebody please elaborate on the anticipated average price increases from Friday’s Free for All comments section, with some areas, such as Vancouver West, projected to a 25% increase for SFH MOM?

I rent on the West Side and can assure you that very few of the properties that I drive by on a daily basis are selling.

Most sit stagnant for many months. Furthermore, anything that does actually sell, seems to sell only after significant price reductions.

My limited understanding is that prices typically start to trend downward at a MOI of 6, and at a MOI of 8, price reductions are more pronounced. So with a current MOI of approximately 12 for the West Side (depending upon source), close to record low sales, and a very high inventory level, I find it very hard to believe that average prices will be up 25% this month.

Would that not bring the West Side to an all time record high price?

If this is just a reflection of more expensive homes selling, while the ‘cheaper’ West Side homes sit idle, then is the average price really a good indicator or measure of anything?

Either way, seems discouraging that with record low sales, record high inventory, record debt levels, the new mortgage rules, and all the global uncertainty and doom and gloom, prices could go up at all, let alone 25% in a single month.

Should I just give up on a correction, which in my mind, is long, long, overdue?

Canada, debt, mortgage, rates

Mortgage rates rise at RBC, more to follow?

107
107 Comments

Looks like RBC just upped two of it’s mortgage rates by one fifth of a point.

What will we do without our record low mortgage rates?

It’s probably just a minor fluctuation, but other banks are expected to follow as bond yields have edged up in the last month.

So if you want to do a rate lock in now might be the time.

Helmut Pastrick of Central One Credit Union explains:

“Sentiment has improved with respect to Europe and the economic outlook,” Pastrick said. “The economic news was quite negative for a period of weeks and now it is somewhat less negative.”

RBC’s posted rate for a three-year, fixed-rate mortgage will go up 0.2 percentage points to 4.05 per cent. Meanwhile, an RBC special-offer rate for five-year closed mortgages rises to 3.69 per cent.

The rise in the cost of funds for banks will mean other lenders will probably also raise their rates, or absorb some of the cost increase to hold onto or gain market share,” Pastrick said.

Read the full article over at the Vancouver Sun.