'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Increasing mortgage rates slowed home sales in April from the frenzied pace they started the year at, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday.
The association found the number of homes sold dropped by 25.7 per cent to 54,894 last month from 73,907 in April 2021, when the country set a record for the month.
On a month-over-month basis, sales in April were down 12.6 per cent compared with March, but still ranked as the third-highest April sales figure, just behind 2021 and 2016.
"The demand fever in Canadian housing has broken and, who would have thought, all it took was a nudge in interest rates by the Bank of Canada to change sentiment," said BMO Capital Markets senior analyst Robert Kavcic, in a note to investors.
CREA attributed much of the slowdown to fixed mortgage rates, which have been on the rise since 2021, but have been more impactful in recent months. The association pointed out that typical discounted five-year fixed rates have leaped from about three to four per cent over the span of a month.
The rate is also weighing on how buyers fare with the mortgage stress test, which oncerequired those with uninsured mortgages -- borrowers with a down payment of at least 20 per cent -- to carry a mortgage rate of either two percentage points above the contract rate, or 5.25 per cent, whichever is greater.
For fixed borrowers, CREA said the stress test just moved from 5.25 per cent to the low 6 per cent range, another roughly one per cent increase in a month.
"People are nervous. They are thinking, 'if I take on this mortgage, when mortgage rates are going up and the price to (live) is more, what is going to happen?" said Anita Springate-Renaud, a Toronto broker with Engel & Volkers.
She noticed that many homes were still getting multiple offers last month, but instead of 20 offers, two or three was becoming the norm.
Properties are also taking longer to sell. Homes that used to find a buyer in three or four days are now sitting for two weeks, in some cases, she said.
Many other realtors have found buyers and sellers holding off on purchasing or listing properties until they see how much of an effect mortgage and interest rate changes have on the market.
"For buyers, this slowdown could mean more time to consider options in the market," said Jill Oudil, CREA's chair, in a news release.
"For sellers, it could necessitate a return to more traditional marketing strategies."
This shift in sentiment was reflected in the number of newly listed homes, which, on a seasonally adjusted basis, fell by 2.2 per cent to 70,957 last month from 72,557 in March.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, new listings amounted to 91,559 last month, down 10.5 per cent from 102,294 in April 2022.
Even though CREA reported slowing sales and fewer listings, Canadians were shelling out even more for homes than they did in 2021.
The national average home price was a little over $746,000 in April, up 7.4 per cent from about $695,000 during the same month last year.
Excluding the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas from this calculation, cuts $138,000 from the national average price, CREA said.
However, on a seasonally adjusted basis the national average home price slid by 3.8 per cent to $741,517 last month from $771,125 in March.
The home price index benchmark price hit $866,700 last month, down 0.6 per cent from a month ago but up 23.7 per cent from a year ago and 63.9 per cent from five years ago.
The benchmark price was lowest in Saskatchewan, where it totalled $271,100 and highest in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, where it amounted to more than $1.3 million.
Kavcic found Ontario markets "weakening most and fastest, especially further outside the core of Toronto (these were also the hottest markets in the country during the pandemic)."
Ontario's suburban markets are the "shakiest" because of how prices have fallen from February peaks, but he said single-detached and townhomes look to be cooling quickest.
"Sales in the province slid 21 per cent in April and are now back in-line with pre-pandemic activity levels," he said.
"The market balance has gone from drum tight with 'not enough supply,' to one that resembles the 2017-19 correction period."
Within the province, TD Economics economist Rishi Sondhi found Toronto to be an outlier because sales and prices dropped more there than in the country overall.
Sondhi believes the Toronto market is now close to tipping in favour of buyers, but in the coming months, expects prices to continue falling nationally, reflecting the cooler demand backdrop.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2022
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.