Year-End Bank Earnings – Mortgage Morsels + MORE Dec 26th

Sure, you paid out the nose in interest charges and assorted bank fees this year, but take comfort in knowing that you helped pad the Big 6 Banks’ bottom lines—to the tune of $33 billion of net income in 2014. That enabled Canada’s banks to post a reasonably strong year, despite a modest spring housing market and the continued low […]

 

Six years ago if someone had told me Canada’s housing market would still be on a bull run in 2015, I would have called him or her crazy. Well, here we are; six years after the financial crisis that brought the U.S. housing and global stock markets to a screeching halt and sent Canada’s economy stumbling, Canadian real estate prices continue to surge forward. In fact, growth is still so strong that the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has revised it’s 2015 outlook, predicting sales and home prices will climb further across the country.
Here’s what homeowners, and buyers, should keep in mind as the new year commences.
Everything Hinges on Low Rates
There’s no secret low interest rates are the reason real estate prices are so hot. In its revised report CREA says, “With mortgage rates remaining at historic lows since the summer, activity has remained stronger for longer than previously expected and has yet to show clear signs of fading.”
As long as rates stay low Canadians can reasonably expect home prices to climb…