Canada’s mortgage market has cooled over the past year amid surging interest rates and borrowing costs – but to date, there’s been nothing resembling the full-blown crisis some had envisaged as activity started to fizzle out.
A mini-resurgence of sorts had gathered pace this spring as the Bank of Canada appeared to hit pause on rate hikes, although two further increases by the central bank in June and July helped slow that momentum.
Still, while mortgage and housing markets in Ontario and British Columbia have seen quieter activity as a result of those additional rate jumps, new inventory is slowly hitting the market, meaning Canadians ready to buy in those provinces no longer face the same intense competition of days past.
Dwight Trafford (pictured top), principal broker at Rock Capital Mortgage in Orangeville, told Canadian Mortgage Professional that the continuing resilience of the mortgage market was a testament to the ability of Canadians to adjust to changing circumstances.
While the impact of the Bank of Canada’s shock-and-awe flurry of rate hikes may have taken some time to get used to, Trafford said current homeowners and buyers alike appear to have grown accustomed to the new reality.
“Canadians adapt really quickly to things,” he said. “Their rates one day were 1.5%, the next they were 5%. I think they got over that the day after that. So people get used to what’s coming along.
“They call me and say, ‘What’s the best I can get?’ And I tell them it’s 5.75% or 6.25% or whatever. They compare the market and say, ‘Yeah, that seems pretty good.’”
