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Iceland’s inflation eased to the slowest pace in more than two years, suggesting its central bank is more likely to begin reducing the western Europe’s highest interest rate in the coming months.
The UK housing market recovery is threatened by investors scaling back bets on how far the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to a new report.
US mortgage rates increased to the highest level in five months, pushing down home-purchase applications for the fifth time in the last six weeks.
The daughter of a Chinese nickel billionaire purchased a multimillion-dollar mansion in Singapore, adding to the list of wealthy people seizing buying opportunities during the market lull.
A rash of failures of A-rated insurers points to a hidden weakness in the market, researchers say.
Apr 20, 2016
By Greg Bonnell
Vancouver residents saving up for a home will need to wait almost three years longer thanks to Ottawa’s new 10% downpayment rule, says a new report released Wednesday.
In Toronto, the median-income earner is looking at nearly an extra year of saving for a median-priced home, National Bank Financial found in its first-quarter Housing Affordability Monitor.
“The affordability of homes in these markets has taken a further hit from the new measure requiring a minimum down payment of 10 per cent for the portion of the purchase price between $500,000 and $1 million,” writes National Bank economists Matthieu Arseneau and Kyle Dahms.
“In both markets, non-condo affordability is the worst on record.”
The extra 34 months of saving in Vancouver for that $821,854 home (the median price) means it now takes almost 107 months to gather a downpayment, or almost nine years.
In Toronto, the extra 11 months pushes the months of saving to 67 for that $621,914 home, a little more than 5 ½ years.
The condo market appears to be the only reasonable place to buy for those pulling down an average income.
National Bank found it takes 34 months to save for a $376,514 condo in Toronto, and 40 months for a $427,828 condo in Vancouver.
While the 10 per cent rule is changing the math on saving for a downpayment, realtors and economists have told BNN it’s having little effect on home sales in Vancouver and Toronto.
Both cities have been setting new monthly records, with no signs of slowing down.
Outside of those two hot markets, the bank found affordability improving in several cities. That includes Montreal, where homes are at the most affordable in a decade, and Calgary, which has been hard-hit by the plunge in oil prices.
The calculations are based on median-income earners buying median-priced homes with a minimum downpayment. The assumed savings rate is 10 per cent of pre-tax income.
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