The Bank of Canada held its overnight rate at 0.25 per cent this morning, a level it considers its effective lower bound. The Bank is also continuing its quantitative easing (QE) program, with large scale asset purchases of at least $5 billion per week in Government of Canada bonds. In the statement accompanying the decision, the Bank noted that th...
The BCREA Commercial Leading Indicator (CLI) continued to fall in the second quarter of 2020 from 127.6 to 121.9, representing the fourth consecutive quarterly decline. It was the second largest drop in the indicator in over two decades, reflecting the hardest hit months of the pandemic in April and May. Compared to the same time last year, the ind...
The Bank of Canada held its overnight rate at 0.25 per cent this morning, a level it considers its effective lower bound. In addition, the Bank is continuing its quantitative easing program, committing to large-scale asset purchases of at least $5 billion per week of Government of Canada bonds along with continued purchases of provincial and corpor...
Once again, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is tightening the criteria to get a mortgage with less than a 20% down payment. Any potential home buyer with less than a 20% down payment must purchase default insurance on their loan and have a minimum down payment of 5%. CMHC is a federal Crown Corporation that provides such defaul...
Home sales and listings down amid COVID-19, new tools and practices emerge to help buyers and sellers adapt
While Metro Vancouver home sale and listing activity remains limited by the COVID-19 situation, REALTORS® across the region are fast adopting new tools and practices to help advise and serve their clients in a responsible way.
• The 2020 COVID-19 driven recession will be deep, though the duration may be shorter than past recessions • We expect that home sales will post an initial sharp decline as households and the real estate sector adhere to social distancing • As measures implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 are gradually lifted, we expect tha...