Golden Girl Finance | July 15, 2013 

The high cost of being Canadian

The True North may be strong but it isn’t exactly free. At least, not from a household finance perspective.

Last winter, a British economic research group concluded that the cost of living in the UK is 11% higher than the international average and 18% costlier than living in the United States.

No surprise there, right? We have all heard stories or had our own experiences of...

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/27/bank-of-canada-can-afford-to-put-off-rate-hike-until-2015-imf/
Gordon Isfeld | November 27, 2013

OTTAWA — First, the good news.

Canada’s economy will accelerate in 2014 — clocking in at a pace of 2.25%, easily overtaking this year’s modest growth of nearly half that, according to the world’s largest lending organization.

Interest rates will go up. Or they will stay the same. One of those two things will definitely happen in 2014, economists say, and some lenders and investors may have trouble adjusting to the change.

"We think rates are generally headed up. We have a growing economy both here and aboard,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). "We’r...

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/98220/Stats-What-Canadians-earn
The Canadian Press | Sept 11, 2013

Statistics Canada's third and final release of 2011 National Household Survey data illustrates, among other things, how much Canadians have been earning and where they have been living. Some highlights:

• Fully one-quarter of Canadian households, about 3.3 million, spent 30 per cent or more of their total income on shelter, exceeding the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's "affordability th...

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Monday that new federal rules will reduce the maximum amortization period to 30 years from 35 years for government-backed insured mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of more than 80 percent.

Secon...

Sales of existing homes in Canada in August rose 4.1 percent from July, the first monthly increase since March, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday.

Reuters - September 09, 2010
New home prices edged lower in July for the first time in 13 months as a new tax regime took effect and the once-hot housing market continued to cool, according to Statistics Canada data released on Thursday.

The new housing price index slipped 0.1 percent in July, while analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a 0.1 percent increase. Home prices climbed 0.1 percent in June.

Statscan said the introduction of a new sales tax in July in Ontario and British Columbia...

Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail - September 08, 2010
As Canada's housing market softens, the question for many homeowners is how much prices might decline. The Conference Board of Canada waded into the debate Wednesday, saying there will not be a "free fall" in the market but rather a pause in what has been, in recent years, rapid price increases.

The comments come on the same day the Bank of Canada  raised its key lending rate for the third time in a row, though it cautioned that further i...