Back to Blog

Mortgage News in a Nutshell

General Trish Pigott 1 Dec

CMHC released its House Price Analysis and Assessment report to the public for the first time last week. The report concludes that Canada’s housing markets “remain broadly consistent” with underlying economic and demographic fundamentals but that home prices in some areas are “slightly higher” than those factors would suggest.
 

RBC published its latest quarterly Housing Trends and Affordability report last week. It says that affordability “predominantly improved” in the third quarter due to rising incomes and continuing low mortgage rates and a drop in utility rates.
 

Statistics Canada reported on Friday that Canada’s GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.8% in the third quarter. That is down from 3.6% in the second quarter but more than the 2.1% which economists were expecting.
 

The benchmark government of Canada five year bond yield ended the week at 1.37%, down sharply from 1.52% the previous week.  The next Bank of Canada rate announcement is scheduled for this Wed, Dec. 3, 2014.