MAY 10 2022 Housing data from April showed home sales were down in most major metro markets in the country, with Toronto sales leading the way, down over 41% year-over-year. Average prices, meanwhile, were down on a monthly basis in the Greater Toronto Area, but continued to rise in most other urban markets outside of […]

MAY 9 2022 Labour Market Bumps Up Against Capacity Constraints Job vacancies abound in many sectors, yet employers have trouble finding workers to fill those jobs and retaining workers with so many options available. As the jobless rate falls to new record lows, net new employment has slowed. This is not dissimilar to the housing […]

APRIL 20 2022 Holy Smokes! Canadian Inflation Is At 6.7% StatsCanada today reported that consumer prices rose a whopping 6.7% year-over-year in March, a full percentage point above the 5.7% reading the month before. Market-driven interest rates shot-up on the news as the prospects increase for another half-point rise in the overnight rate when the […]

APRIL 19 2022 Canadian March Home Sales Posted Their Biggest Decline Since June Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that rising interest rates were already dampening housing activity well before the Bank of Canada’s jumbo spike in the key policy rate in mid-April. National home sales fell back by 5.4% […]

APRIL 13 2022 Bank of Canada Hikes Rates by 50 BPs, Signalling More To Come The Governing Council of the Bank of Canada raised the overnight policy rate by a full 50 basis points for the first time in 22 years. This was a widely telegraphed action that will be followed by the US Federal […]

APRIL 11 2022 Labour Market Tightens Further Statistics Canada released the March Labour Force Survey recently, reporting a 72,500 jobs gain from the whopping 337,000 surge in February. Employment increased in both the goods- and services-producing sectors. Gains were concentrated in Ontario and Quebec. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, its lowest monthly rate since […]

APRIL 8 2022 Affordable Housing Is A Key Theme In Federal Budget 2022 Yesterday’s budget announced a $10 billion package of proposals intended to reduce the cost of housing in Canada (see section below). The fundamental problem is insufficient supply to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population base. Thanks to the federal government’s policy […]

MARCH 16 2022 Inflation Pressures Accelerating StatsCanada today reported that consumer prices rose 5.7% year-over-year in February, up again from the prior month’s 5.1% rise. This was the largest gain since August 1991 (+6.0%). This was no surprise, as the Ukraine War has stepped up inflation pressure worldwide. The US CPI rose a whopping 7.9% […]

MARCH 15 2022 New Listings Finally Show Some Life Statistics released today by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show that national home sales were up in February 2022 as buyers jumped on the first spring listings. The number of newly listed properties surged a welcome 23.7% from extremely depressed levels, hopefully portending a much-needed […]