Economic Insights.

Dr. Cooper is Dominion Lending Centre's Chief Economist who helps Canadians understand the issues surrounding their most important financial decision – buying a home.

March Existing Home Sales in Canada Hit New Record High As New Listings Surge To Unprecedented Levels

April 15, 2021

What is All the Policy Hysteria About? Today the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released statistics showing national existing home sales hit another all-time high in March. What was arguably more noteworthy was that new listings hit their highest level on record in seasonally adjusted terms in March. Prices continued to rise as sales dwarfed the new supply. The number of homes sold across the country […]

Blockbuster Canadian Jobs Report for March

April 9, 2021

Blowout Canadian Job Growth Continued In March This morning, Statistics Canada released the March 2021 Labour Force Survey showing much stronger-than-expected job growth for the second month in a row, pointing towards a Q1 growth rate of more than 5.5%. This survey reflected labour market conditions during the week of March 14 to 20, when public health restrictions were […]

OSFI Considers Setting a Minimum Qualifying Rate of 5.25% For Uninsured Mortgages

April 8, 2021

Banking Regulator Aims To Make It Tougher To Get An Uninsured Mortgage With several Big-Five bank CEOs calling for regulatory action to slow the red-hot housing market, it didn’t take long for the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the governor of federally regulated financial institutions, to respond. In a news release issued today, OSFI proposed an increase in uninsured mortgages’ qualifying rate to […]

Canadian Housing Market Still On Fire

March 15, 2021

Housing Continued to Surge in February Today the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released statistics showing national home sales hit another all-time high in February 2021. Canadian home sales increased a whopping 6.6% month-on-month (m-o-m), building on the largest winter housing boom in history. On a year-over-year (y-o-y) basis, existing home sales surged an amazing 39.2%. As the chart below shows, February’s activity […]

Roaring Canadian Jobs Market Signals Economic Rebound

March 12, 2021

Easing Restrictions Ignite Canadian Job Market In February This morning, Statistics Canada released the February 2021 Labour Force Survey showing much stronger-than-expected job growth. The early days of the latest easing in COVID restrictions reinvigorated the labour market. Economists were pleasantly surprised by the rapid rebound. To be sure, there remain risks to the outlook, a rise in virus cases because […]