As reported in today's Toronto Star, Canadians received more proof yesterday of the global credit crunch hitting home after this country's biggest banks began hiking their residential mortgage rates in an effort to recoup higher funding costs from their customers.
The interest rate increases follow days of forewarning by financial experts, who predicted Canadians would feel the pinch of the financial crisis through higher borrowing costs on consumer loans.
TD Canada Trust was the first of the big domestic lenders to increase mortgage rates both on its' fixed rate mortgage product and its' variable interest rate mortgage. TD Canada Trust claims that the increase now is reflective because the bank has been holding on, that all of the industry in fact has been holding on, trying not to pass the increased costs to the customers, but says that it can't do this anymore.
Banks are grappling with higher funding costs in the wake of last year's subprime mortgage market meltdown in the United States. With the ensuing global credit crunch now in its second year, banks remain wary of lending to each other. The bank says that all mortgages, variable rates mortgages in particular, have become money losers because of the cost of funds due to all the challenges that are going on in the world right now.
Another factor affecting rates is the bond market which has been in a flux ever since the United States announced a $700 billion US bailout plan for American banks. The interest rates on mortgages and other short-term borrowing are set based on the price of bonds. With lower demand for bonds, and fears of inflation, rates have to rise to lure investors.
Warmly,
Mary Wozny
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Canadian Housing Starts Jump
As reported in today's Globe and Mail, housing starts rebounded sharply in August, with the seasonally adjusted annual rate jumping to 211,000 units from 186,500 in July, far outstripping Bay Street forecasts of about 190,000 states Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Ontario accounted for the entire gain, with starts in the country's most populous province climbing 81 per cent to 86,500 from 47,800 in July, but falling in every other region, CMHC said. The agency attributed the rebound mostly to multiple-unit starts, with those in urban areas jumping 25.2 per cent to 114,700 units, after falling 20.2 per cent in July.
“After a brief pause in July, the volatile multiple segment bounced back to a level of activity that is more consistent with our forecast for this year,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in a news release. “Most of the volatility in housing starts over the last three months reflected swings in multiple starts in Ontario.”
The July drop marked just the fourth time in 5-1/2 years that the seasonally adjusted annual rate had fallen below 200,000 units.
The unexpectedly strong rebound came a day after figures from Statistics Canada for the value of building permits issued in July also surpassed expectations, rising by 1.8 per cent to $6.4-billion, instead of the 1 per cent forecast by economists, following a 5.3 per cent drop in June.
Still, the CMHC's start figures can be a misleading guide to the state of the housing market and the economy at large, because they often represent investment decisions and sales made by builders and developers a year or two before construction begins.
This does not necessarily mean that housing remains healthy, it should be taken for what it is – a snapback from a previously large decline. The Canadian housing market does have some headwinds that will bring down activity in the next couple of quarters.
This optimism needs to be tempered by the fact that strength in the August housing numbers was narrowly based in the volatile multiples component in Ontario. As well, the earlier deterioration in affordability will likely reassert a downward trend in the starts data going forward for the remainder of this year and through 2009.
However, the pace of decline is modest compared to the drop that has occurred in the U.S., where the 965,000-unit level of starts represents less than half of the recent annual peak in 2005 of 2.073 million units.
CMHC said that nationally, starts of single-family dwellings rose 2 per cent to 71,200 units in August.
Warmly,
Mary Wozny
Ontario accounted for the entire gain, with starts in the country's most populous province climbing 81 per cent to 86,500 from 47,800 in July, but falling in every other region, CMHC said. The agency attributed the rebound mostly to multiple-unit starts, with those in urban areas jumping 25.2 per cent to 114,700 units, after falling 20.2 per cent in July.
“After a brief pause in July, the volatile multiple segment bounced back to a level of activity that is more consistent with our forecast for this year,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in a news release. “Most of the volatility in housing starts over the last three months reflected swings in multiple starts in Ontario.”
The July drop marked just the fourth time in 5-1/2 years that the seasonally adjusted annual rate had fallen below 200,000 units.
The unexpectedly strong rebound came a day after figures from Statistics Canada for the value of building permits issued in July also surpassed expectations, rising by 1.8 per cent to $6.4-billion, instead of the 1 per cent forecast by economists, following a 5.3 per cent drop in June.
Still, the CMHC's start figures can be a misleading guide to the state of the housing market and the economy at large, because they often represent investment decisions and sales made by builders and developers a year or two before construction begins.
This does not necessarily mean that housing remains healthy, it should be taken for what it is – a snapback from a previously large decline. The Canadian housing market does have some headwinds that will bring down activity in the next couple of quarters.
This optimism needs to be tempered by the fact that strength in the August housing numbers was narrowly based in the volatile multiples component in Ontario. As well, the earlier deterioration in affordability will likely reassert a downward trend in the starts data going forward for the remainder of this year and through 2009.
However, the pace of decline is modest compared to the drop that has occurred in the U.S., where the 965,000-unit level of starts represents less than half of the recent annual peak in 2005 of 2.073 million units.
CMHC said that nationally, starts of single-family dwellings rose 2 per cent to 71,200 units in August.
Warmly,
Mary Wozny
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