Current Mortgage News & Blog

CMHC releases housing start data

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts reached 189,200 units in July, according to new data from CMHC.

"Housing starts moved lower in July, largely due to a decrease in urban single starts and a reduction in rural starts," said Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC's Market Analysis Centre. "Multiple starts partially offset this moderation."

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts rose 1.9 per cent to 169,300 units in July while rural starts hit an estimated 19,900 units.

Last month's seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts dropped almost 15 per cent in B.C, 2.6 per cent in Ontario and 0.4 per cent in Quebec. In the Atlantic Region, urban starts rose 37.7 per cent, 14.4 per cent in the Prairie Region.

Source: CMP Magazine


Resale home prices double over decade

Canada's resale market has out-priced new housing over the past decade.

Between 2000 and the first half of 2010 the average cost of a new home increased by about 50 per cent while the average price of a resale home more than doubled, according to a report released Tuesday by Scotiabank.

The bank attributes the robust resale numbers to a multitude of factors including the tight supply of resale homes, low interest rates and mortgage market innovation.

Scotiabank also reports that increased household wealth has led to more renovations, adding additional value to resale homes.

"The typical Canadian resale home likely contains more updated and sought-after features which would account for some of the rise in average selling prices," the release said.
 
Residential renovation expenditures increased at an over seven per cent average annual rate between 2000 and 2009. Between 1990 and 1999, they declined by an average of one per cent annually.

Source: CMP Magazine 


Housing sales drop significantly in July


Canada's housing market may have peaked this year, as Vancouver and Calgary sales were down 45 and 42 per cent, respectively, compared to last July.

Mortgage rates are at a record low and there are many homes available for sale yet new buyers are still not entering the market.

"We expected the market to soften because we've seen such a flood of listings," said Laura Parsons, a Calgary-based manager at Bank of Montreal who specializes in mortgages, to The Globe and Mail. "You can look at this as a bad thing, but affordability has improved for many buyers and rates are still very low."

Even still, it is likely many felt pressured to buy earlier this year to secure a cheap mortgage, and avoid the harmonized sales tax that came into effect July 1 in Ontario and British Columbia.

Source: CMP Magazine



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