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The Long Road to Housing Affordability
Desjardins recently produced a report examining Canada’s homeownership affordability, using its Desjardins Affordability Index (DAI) to assess whether average household disposable income is sufficient to qualify for a mortgage on an average-priced home. The report’s central finding is that while affordability has improved from its 2023 lows, that relief is already fading. The deterioration began…
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How Current Data Could Be Shaping the Bank of Canada’s Outlook
The Bank of Canada’s next scheduled rate announcement is April 29. This meeting will include a Monetary Policy Report outlining its most recent economic projections, along with an assessment of evolving risks. Labour force data released on April 10 was largely in line with expectations and is unlikely to change the Bank’s current economic outlook. …
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Housing Affordability: Is Supply the Only Story?
A major challenge in creating effective housing affordability policies is the lack of consensus on the root causes or the solutions. In Canada, the policy response has largely focused on addressing the shortage of housing supply. However, a recent paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Housing Affordability and Housing Demand, challenges the…
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Rising U.S. Treasury Yields Spill Over into Canada
Three forces dominated U.S. fixed income markets this week: a March employment report that looked strong at first glance, an energy shock from the Iran conflict, and a meaningful repricing of Federal Reserve expectations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 178,000 non-farm payrolls in March, well above the market expectation of 59,000. However, the…
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The Hidden Tax Killing Housing Affordability
When a builder constructs a new home, the price tag on the front door reflects far more than lumber, labour, and land. Buried within it is a government levy most Canadians have never heard of — a development charge — and it is quietly making homeownership unaffordable for an entire generation. Development charges (DCs) are…
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Canadian Commodity Sectors and the Iran War
Thirty days into the U.S.-Israel air campaign against Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered the largest oil supply disruption in market history, collapsing flows from roughly 20 million barrels per day to a trickle. For Canada, the sectoral impacts are asymmetric: the prospect of significant near-term opportunities tempered by structural bottlenecks…
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Oil Price Shock, Bond Market Volatility, and Canadian Housing Affordability
The recent global oil price shock has introduced a complex set of variables for Canadian monetary policy with direct implications for housing affordability. As oil prices surged above US$100 per barrel in early 2026, the Bank of Canada (BoC) maintained its policy interest rate at 2.25 per cent during its March 18 meeting. While Governor…
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