Canada’s major real estate boards reported May results last week. The news was generally good with sales and prices up but low inventories are still creating difficult conditions for buyers in Calgary and Toronto.

The Bank of Canada left its key overnight rate at 1% last week and its commentary contained no indication of rate increase in the short or medium term.

CMHC announced on Friday that it will no longer offer mortgage insurance to condominium developers and that it will align its low ratio insurance criteria with its transactional homeowner insurance.

Statistics Canada reported May employment data on Friday. Almost 29,000 jobs were added in Canada while in the US, more than 200,000 jobs were added for the fourth consecutive month.

The benchmark government of Canada five year bond yield ended the week at 1.58%, up from 1.53% the previous week.  

News provided by MCAP Mortgage News for the week of June 9/14.