Featured
Is a Tax Credit a Better Way to Support Social Housing?
One of the biggest challenges in Canada’s rental housing crisis is the lack of new affordable housing units being built. Despite efforts through the National Housing Strategy’s five programs, only 17,000 units were delivered after four years. This disappointing outcome is only a modest improvement over Ottawa’s track record in the past 30 years. For…
Read more
Latest US Inflation Numbers are Good News
Paradoxically, good news is often bad news when looking at inflation. Positive trends like strong economic growth, low unemployment and high consumer confidence can have inflationary impacts. In the current environment, such ‘good news’ could lead the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) to delay any planned – and highly anticipated – rate cuts. However, recent…
Read more
The Housing Market’s Matching Problem
Economics is largely about creating the right incentive structures. However, housing policy often overlooks this principle, resulting in significant mismatches between households and the available housing stock. This issue is evident in policies around both rental and housing supply. Average rents have been rising, and any efforts to increase supply will take years to have…
Read more
Labour Market Data Support Bank of Canada Rate Decision
Despite adding 27,000 jobs in May, the labour market continued to soften as the unemployment rate rose to 6.2%. Job growth came from part-time employment, which increased by 62,000, while full-time employment was down by 36,000. Most of the new jobs were in the service sector, including retail, accommodation, and food services. However, construction saw…
Read more
Making the Economics of Affordable Housing Pencil Out
For nearly twenty-five years, there has been a significant lack of new purpose-built rental construction. Instead, condos became the primary source of new rental stock. This divergence in construction activity is largely due to differences in how developers finance their projects and the difference in equity requirements between these types of construction. Unlike purpose-built rental…
Read more
Have We Reached a Tipping Point?
In the lead up to the Bank of Canada’s June 6 meeting, market expectations for a rate cut climbed to around 80 per cent. Initially, analysts were uncertain about the prospect of a cut, but the consensus shifted following a weaker-than-expected first-quarter GDP report. The Q1 GDP miss is compounded by a downward revision to…
Read more
What Will End Canada’s Home Affordability Crisis?
The Bank of Canada has not yet declared victory over inflation. While we are likely close to seeing the first rate cut by the central bank, potentially as early as June or July, the market remains in a state of suspended animation, facing numerous challenges: Housing prices, although off their pandemic highs, remain elevated and…
Read more
Contact Us
Contact us today to set up an appointment.