09/08/2022
On September 7th the Bank of Canada announced another rate hike of 75bps to put the BoC Overnight lending rate at 3.25%.
So, what does this mean for borrowers and the housing market?
For context, the impact of each 1% BoC rate hike means monthly payments will increase an average of $315 for household borrowers. With hikes to 3.25% this month and the forecast at 3.5% by January 2023, this equates to a total of an approximate $900+ monthly increase in the last year alone.
There’s a very real concern that borrowers who purchased their homes while the market was particularly hot and have since faced some value depreciation may find themselves trapped in “Mortgage Prison” with their current lender due to not meeting the required equity threshold with a new one; meaning these borrowers are at their mercy.
I strongly advise borrowers who bought in the last 3 years to act with haste and contact their existing lenders to see what they can offer. Afterwards, talk to a mortgage broker so you can compare that with non-bank lenders; your dollar can stretch further with them and they may be able to provide a solution - or at least some leverage.
What about the real estate market?
As far as the real estate market goes, buying activity is down as the general consensus is to “wait and see”. Some buyers and investors are taking advantage of the slowed competition for the under-supplied market, leading to a stabilization in the Ontario real estate market which is down 0.4% in July, but is still up in every other province.
Will the sky fall because the BoC overnight rates are at 3.25%?
In short, no. If we look at the cycles we can see that we are still in a historically low interest rate environment. Near its peak in September 1982, it was 12.93%. Ten years later in September 1992 it was 5.44%; in September 2002 it dropped to 2.75% and in September 2012 it was only 1%.
We had nowhere to go but up. Hang on to your hats, these are all normal market fluctuations. The sky is not falling.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-interest-rates-housing-market-downturn/?
