No increase in 2019 for new fixed-rate mortgages: BCREA forecast. With a recent decline in bond yields, lenders have pushed interest rates as high as they will go for a year, predicts association. Canadians may be anxious about mortgage interest rate hikes, but those applying for new fixed-rate mortgages are likely to have a breather […]

These Canadian Housing Markets Took A Beating In 2018. What Does 2019 Have In Store? Toronto should stay stable, but Vancouver’s correction is expected to continue. 2018 began with a steep nationwide drop in housing activity. Stricter mortgage qualification rules pushed buyers to the sidelines, as year-over-year double-digit sales decreases became the norm. Of course, […]

Micro-investing in B.C. real estate properties

Is the older generation as comfortable in homeownership as generally perceived? The main critique of BC NDP housing taxes has been that they breed attacks on the difficult-to-defend wealth of the longtime homeowner – that they are, in effect, thinly veiled class warfare. But I think the data suggests there’s an even deeper issue that should concern […]

Who’s paying the soaring costs of real estate levies? Experts weigh whether landowners or homebuyers are bearing the brunt of fee burden. Municipal budgets have become increasingly reliant on property taxes and development charges since the federal government began downloading costs onto provinces and municipalities in the 1990s. But government taxes are not the only […]

Not everyone loses in a softer housing market TORONTO — Real estate markets across the country may be showing signs of softening, but home stager Monique Shaw says her business has been booming. “People were using staging as a way to sell in a hot market,” said the owner of Homes Beautifully by Monique Shaw […]

What You Need To Earn To Afford A Single-Family Home Across Canada In Vancouver, you need to be in the top one per cent to buy a detached home at current prices. Home affordability has become so strained in Canada’s priciest markets that if incomes don’t catch up, house prices will fall, says the co-author […]

B.C. government launches promised condo flipping registry

A decade after the U.S.’s bust and Canada’s boom, things look surprisingly similar in the two housing markets. Jon Wightman via Getty Images This fall marks the tenth anniversary of the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, and the start of the global financial crisis that roiled the world for years to come. That crisis […]

Some variable-rate mortgagors are feeling a bead of sweat after today’s Bank of Canada quarter-point rate hike. The bank’s communications today suggest it’s dead set on “normalizing” rates. Translation: Today is not the last time prime increases in this rate cycle. Shrewd borrowers have chosen variable-rate mortgages for years. After all, that’s what the research […]