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A Price to Pay

Happy Monday Morning! CPI headline inflation came in lower than expected this past week. Markets were calling for 3% and we got 2.8%, a pleasant surprise and back to its lowest levels since March 2021. Perhaps the 475bps of rate hikes are finally starting to work their way through the

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Trapped

Happy Monday Morning! As expected, the Bank of Canada tightened the screws once again, jacking rates up another 25bps, and bringing the overnight rate to 5%, its highest level since 2001. “It’s working,” Macklem said in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, several hours after raising borrowing costs

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Healthy Cleansing

Happy Monday Morning! There are growing concerns about the state of variable rate mortgage holders across the country. At this point nearly everyone who’s on a variable rate mortgage has essentially hit their trigger rate. It’s become front page news, and rightfully so. Unfortunately this story isn’t going away anytime

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The Clock is Ticking

Happy Monday Morning! Headline inflation dropped like a stone in the month of May, now down to 3.4%. Mortgage interest costs surged 30% and remains the largest contributor to the year-over-year CPI increase. Strip out self inflicted mortgage interest cost, and CPI sits at 2.5% in May, back within the

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There Will be Blood

Happy Monday Morning! Perhaps one of the most fascinating stories of the year has been the resiliency in the nations housing market. Prices have bounced sharply since the depths of the 2022 bear market, surprising even the housing bulls. This is no bueno for the Bank of Canada who is

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Credit Slump

Happy Monday Morning! As mentioned in last weeks note, the great big housing boom is over. You see housing booms need credit, lots of it, to keep the wheels churning. The single largest driver of home prices over the past few years has been cheap and abundant credit. When money is

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The Firm Grip of Tiff Macklem

Happy Monday Morning! The Scotia guy was right, and the Bank of Canada delivered with another rate hike. It was only 25bps but the signal sent shockwaves through the bond market. It’s incredibly rare for a central bank to raise rates, pause, and then start hiking again. Pauses are almost

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Sacrificial Lambs

Happy Monday Morning! The Canadian economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.1% in the first quarter, surprising to the upside and trumping the Bank of Canada’s growth forecasts. Four hundred basis points and the economy still hasn’t rolled over. This is prompting calls for the Bank of Canada to

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Money at Stake

Happy Monday Morning! The blistering hot spring market, which has been plagued by a twenty year low in new listings across the country is finally starting to simmer. This is welcoming news for home buyers, whom instead of competing with six other buyers might only have to compete with three

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No Need to Panic, Yet

Happy Monday Morning! Inflation came in hotter than expected in April. Headline inflation ticked in at 4.4%, well above the 4.1% that was expected. It was the first month over month increase in the rate of headline inflation since June 2022. Naturally, panic ensured shortly thereafter. Markets immediately removed their

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Nowhere to Hide

Happy Monday Morning! Anyone following this newsletter since about January knows that the housing market has surged back to life. Inventory has fallen off a cliff at the same time buyer sentiment has rebounded, coinciding with the BoC’s Tiff Macklem taking his foot off the gas. In the GTA, home

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Moral Victories

Happy Monday Morning! We get readers of all stripes on this newsletter. Policy makers, bankers, property developers, and every day people trying to figure out what’s going on in the crazy world of Real Estate up north. We’ve hit nearly seven thousand subscribers now which i’m incredibly grateful for. I’m

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