Interest rates will continue to dictate the outcome of Canada’s housing market in 2024 with the first and second halves showing different pictures. RBC’s latest housing report projects slow activity and softer prices in the early part of the year as the Bank of Canada maintains its policy rate at a two-decade high and home ownership stays out of reach for many potential buyers. But a pivot toward rate cuts mid-year will get the wheels turning faster over the second half or perhaps even sooner.
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Published on: 31 Jan 2024
Inflation hit a new three-decade high in January, heaping more pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates for the first time since the pandemic started. The consumer price index rose 5.1 per cent in January from a year earlier, accelerating from December’s pace of 4.8 per cent and marking the first time since 1991 that inflation has surpassed 5 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. It was the 10th consecutive month that inflation has exceeded the Bank of Canada’s target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.
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Published on: 23 Feb 2022
