By: The Canadian Press

The pace of housing starts in Canada picked up in April as they rose more than 20 per cent compared with March, fuelled by the start of work on new multi-unit projects such as condominiums, apartments and townhouses.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Wednesday the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts increased to 235,460 units in April, up 22.6 per cent from 191,981 in March.

Economists had expected an annual pace of 196,400, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, economic analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said builders won’t be packing away the hammers any time soon.

“Although the Canadian housing market slowed at the start of the year, the latest data suggest the downward momentum has stabilized and could even be picking up again,” Thiagamoorthy wrote in a report.

“Underlying demand remains healthy amid solid demographic trends and a strong labour market.”
The overall increase in the pace of housing starts comes as the annual pace of urban multiple-unit projects such as condominiums, apartments and townhouses increased 29.6 per cent to 175,732 in April.

Single-detached urban starts increased six per cent to 44,655.

“Signs of stabilization in at least some major resale markets and ongoing strength in homebuilding — particularly the multi-unit segment — suggest the housing sector is shifting to a more neutral force in Canada’s economy after acting as a sizable drag last year,” wrote Josh Nye, a senior economist at Royal Bank.

The growth in the pace of housing starts was helped by the strength of starts of multi-unit projects in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta.

Compared with March, the overall pace of starts in Ontario were up 46 per cent, while B.C. gained 51 per cent and Alberta improved 36 per cent.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15,073 units.
The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates was 206,103 in April, up from 202,420 in March.

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by Ephraim Vecina

Two years since the Fair Housing Plan was introduced, home prices in markets throughout Ontario have seen significant ups and downs, according to a new Zoocasa analysis.

The Plan – implemented by the provincial government in April 2017 as a response to speculator-impelled price growth – introduced a raft of regulations that have had a marked impact on the housing segment.

Among the most noteworthy of these are much-tightened rent controls along with a 15% non-resident tax on foreign buyers.

“The changes had an immediate psychological impact on the market. Local real estate boards noted a large influx of listings in the following months, as skittish sellers looked to cash in before the market went soft. As a result, a number of housing markets within the province experienced double-digit per-cent price and sales declines, especially among higher-priced single-family home types,” the Zoocasa report noted.

Newmarket and Aurora were the locales that experienced the greatest proportional price declines during that two-year time frame, at 30%. The average home prices in the areas stood at $725,710 and $888,387, respectively.

However, the softening market has pushed a growing number of buyers towards certain markets, “especially comparatively affordable secondary markets that are supported by strong employment.” The strongest price increases were observed in locales that had average prices at less than $500,000.

Windsor-Essex enjoyed 25% price growth in the 24 months ending April 2019, with an average price of $343,956. London came next with its 19% growth, reaching an average price of $429,058.

The Ottawa Region, which has enjoyed sustained growth over the past few quarters, saw its home prices grow by 10% over two years, with an average price of $450,295.

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CBC News

After plunging to their lowest level since 2012, sales of Canadian homes have inched higher for the past two months and are now about four per cent higher than they were a year ago.

The Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday that that home sales last month rose on an annual basis for the first time since December 2017.

That was the last month before the federal government tightened mortgage rules by implementing a “stress test” on borrowers that makes it harder to get funding to buy a home. The rules were brought in to crack down on speculators and overleveraged buyers, and the result has so far been to let out a lot of the hot air in the market.

Sales have plunged, and prices eventually stopped their multi-year run of setting new highs, month after month. On the price side of things, the average selling price of a Canadian home has fallen every month since September of last year, when the figure stood at $487,000.

CREA said Wednesday that the average price of a Canadian resale home sold in April was $495,000, up 0.3 per cent from where it was a year ago.

The group which represents 130,000 real estate agents across the country says an uptick in sales activity in the Toronto and Montreal areas was enough to offset declines in Vancouver.

“Sales there are still trending lower, as buyers adjust to a cocktail of housing affordability challenges, reduced access to financing due to the mortgage stress-test, and housing-policy changes implemented by British Columbia’s provincial government,” CREA’s chief economist Gregory Klump said.

Despite the national uptick in sales, the number of homes being sold is still below the level it was at for the most of the second half of last year.

“Housing market trends are improving in some places and not so much in others,” CREA president Jason Stephen said.

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Link here!

Proceeds from the “Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser” will support the purchase of a new holmium laser, a key piece of equipment for the planned Urology Program at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. In addition to being essential in urology for the treatment of such ailments as tumors, BPH (a benign, non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate) and for breaking down kidney stones; holmium lasers are also used in other fields such as gastroenterology, pulmonology and orthopedics.

“The 50/50 will help us ignite fundraising for this program, which has been sorely missed in Chatham-Kent,” says CKHAF President & CEO Mary Lou Crowley.

While everyone who buys a ticket will win by supporting great health care in Chatham-Kent, someone will win really big by taking home half the total jackpot. The draw will be made at 1 pm on June 27^th, at Maple City Homes new development on Park Avenue in Chatham. The winner will be posted online on the foundation’s website at ckhaf.ca, and through CKHAF social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“If we spark our supporters’ interest, there’s no limit to how high the jackpot can grow. The more people participate, the bigger it will get,” says Crowley. “50/50s connected with major sports teams and their charitable funds have seen on-line jackpots soar into the hundreds of thousands of dollars recently.”

During the 50/50 conducted at the International Plowing Match last year in Pain Court, the winner went home with more than $80,000. That 50/50 was limited to selling tickets on-site at the event.

“Since we are able to sell tickets for this raffle both online and at events throughout the summer, we believe anything is possible,” says Crowley. “50/50s connected with major sports teams and their charitable funds have seen online jackpots soar well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars recently.”

Tickets can be purchased by Ontario residents over 18 years of age. The secure, online portal where supporters can purchase tickets can be found on the foundation’s website at ckhaf.ca, along with real-time tracking of the constantly-growing jackpot. Regular jackpot updates will also be posted on the foundation’s social media accounts throughout the sales period up to the day of the draw.

In addition to online sales, there will be opportunities to purchase tickets at various events across Chatham-Kent during the spring and summer. Clearly designated volunteers with handheld devices will sell tickets at the events. While all events where tickets will be sold have not been confirmed, RetroFest on June 21 and 22, including at the Sam Roberts Concert in Tecumseh Park on the Friday, will be the final major event where ticket purchases can be made in-person.

Maple City Homes and Agri-Roots Capital Management, Incorporated are partnering with the foundation as sponsors of the Igniting Healthcare 50/50 FUNdraiser.

“Our partnerships with these two companies, as well as with Chatham’s Downtown BIA and RetroFest, are essential to our fundraising efforts,” says Crowley. “These partnerships are an outstanding example of the community support that’s helping doctors, nurses and staff at our hospital deliver excellent, patient-centred care.”

by Ephraim Vecina

As part of its drive to closely scrutinize threats to the national financial system, the Bank of Canada has announced that it will begin collecting more detailed data on HELOCs this month.

This is especially important as HELOCs have emerged as a powerful and versatile solution amid a regulatory regime governed by the considerably rigid strictures of B-20.

By the end of January 2019, Canada’s Big Six banks had $223 billion in outstanding HELOCs. This represented a little over 10% of the country’s $2.17 trillion in total household debt as of that month.

“Given the flexibility HELOCs can provide, borrowers can use them even in a downturn or if they lost their jobs to sustain household spending and continue to service their other debt,” Robert Colangelo of DBRS Ltd. said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg. “It makes it difficult for lenders to identify emerging credit problems.’’

Examining HELOCs will help shed further light on their evolving nature. Bloomberg Intelligence credit research analyst Himanshu Bakshi said that stand-alone HELOCs have experienced little growth, while the largest banks are seeing their share of partly-amortizing hybrid HELOCs increasing at an accelerated pace.

Analyzing this aspect of Canadian HELOCs might prove more troublesome than expected, however. None of the Big Six institutions categorize and report balances in the same manner, according to regulatory filings and confirmations by the banks’ representatives.

Toronto-Dominion Bank’s HELOCs totalled $87 billion, with $52.2 billion on the amortizing portion of its hybrid product, and the remaining $34.8 billion non-amortizing.

Bank of Montreal operates on a similar reporting scheme as TD, with $17.4 billion (out of a $31.7 billion total) in HELOCs amortizing, and $14.3 billion non-amortizing.

National Bank of Canada clearly delineated that its reported $22.2 billion in HELOCs was divided in two, between amortizing and non-amortizing halves.

On the other hand, Royal Bank of Canada classifies its amortizing home equity product as a mortgage, and that “home equity lines of credit include term loans collateralized by residential mortgages.” The institution reported $39.6 billion in non-amortizing HELOCs.

Bank of Nova Scotia reported $20.8 billion in HELOCs, which covers only the non-amortizing part. Amortizing balances are categorized under residential mortgages.

Likewise, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce doesn’t itemize its balances for its hybrid product, only reporting $21.8 billion in non-amortizing HELOCs.

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