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Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

bankofcanada.ca

171–180 of 214 posts

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#171
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get how that could possibly be true, given that the CAD has depreciated something like 30% in the past few years vs USD?

Not everything bought in Canada is traded internationally and denominated in USD.

Sure, but some significant set of goods must come from abroad. The vast majority of clothing and electronics, for example.

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#172
post #158
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get how that could possibly be true, given that the CAD has depreciated something like 30% in the past few years vs USD?

The USD isn't some gold standard of truth. Like any currency it also appreciates and depreciates over time. You can't just look at the exchange rate between two currencies and make any meaningfully claims. Definitely, you can't make any claims about Canadian inflation by just looking at the exchange rate. When we went up to 1.10 it didn't cause deflation and when we went down to the low .70s we didn't see inflation.

I don't mean it as some expression of hegemony or to demean Canada, it's just that USD is one of the major global reserve currencies, and a large percentage of international trade is conducted in USD. If it's your opinion that it has depreciated less against the other currencies that are commonly used in trade, I'm happy to hear about that. Given a depreciation against the trade currencies, I'd expect a large number of imports to get more expensive nominally, including many necessities like clothing. Maybe this isn't the case, and if it's not, I'd be very interested to hear why.

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#173
post #46

This will be very interesting to watch. The Toronto real estate market has already started to correct. Prices are down 20-30% seconds nice earlier this summer. A ton of people eager to buy "before prices go even higher" are getting creamed. Interest rates going up will only make this worse. Hold on tight!!

>Hold on tight!!

An apt caption for the uncertainty in Toronto introduced by Wynne's last desperate attempts to change people's minds on her.

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#174
post #43

The commonwealth countries are all facing a property bubble (Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc). The household debt levels and property prices didn't taper off nearly as much following the 2008 US housing crisis and has pretty much continued unabated: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-punwasi/real-estate-bub... Which is fascinating to consider that the Bank of Canada, et al, have let this happen for so long and…

Australia hasnt had 0% interest rates or even close, and all banks compare you against an 8% interest for seviceability comparisons - and the prices still skyrocketed with so much foreign investment.

They are doing the right things here and targeting increased rates for investment owners over home occupiers

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#175

Relatedly, the Toronto housing market that kept shooting up even as the US hit its 2008 housing crisis now have hit their top: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-06/toronto-h...

Toronto's property market is insane. I am still seeing condos (e.g. Gibson near North York center) being priced at 600K+ for 1+1 and larger units well over 1 million dollars. Not sure who can afford this. Places as far as Vaughan and Milton are expensive. We're talking decent detached houses (slightly above starter home) for over 1 million.

Sydney is up there as well. A one bedroom apartment in my building just sold for nearly US$900k. This is a nice area, 30 mins from the CBD, but still..

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#176
post #142
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Inflation has occurred outside of CPI basket, most notably in equity markets and real estate prices in large urban cities Those are assets rather than goods. They are neither produced nor consumed. That being said, yeah, it's no mystery that low rates have caused asset price inflation, not consumer price inflation.

It's all a matter of technicalities and definitions :) You are consuming housing when you pay rent/mortgage. A house is built, and then its owners consume it in "housing units", or rent those "housing units" to other for consumption. Likewise that ground beef you have in the fridge is an asset - you can sell it to your neighbor at any point before you consume it. Equity is a claim on a company's assets. If General El…

Assets are not durable goods. Assets different than goods.

When you pay rent you are consuming housing. When you pay a mortgage it is a financing transaction on the asset. Your consumption cost nets out because you are both paying and receiving rent. Yes all transactions are for either an asset or a good, as Y=C+I...

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#177
post #43

The commonwealth countries are all facing a property bubble (Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc). The household debt levels and property prices didn't taper off nearly as much following the 2008 US housing crisis and has pretty much continued unabated: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-punwasi/real-estate-bub... Which is fascinating to consider that the Bank of Canada, et al, have let this happen for so long and…

Don't forget that property prices were also inflated by foreign buyers looking for a safe place to put their money outside their governments' reach, and that this practice was encouraged by the outgoing government (probably the current one as well). Also, another issue is that you can cause a housing market crash and financial crisis by abruptly increasing the rate when household debt is at a high.

Foreign ownership was pretty limited in Canada. I think the highest level was in Vancouver proper and it was ~10%.

Housing prices went nuts in Canada because Canadians felt they were being priced out and "real estate always goes up".

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#178
post #130
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wages haven't gone up, so while you may have shifted allocation of purchases within the CPI basket, your total spending is probably around the same as it was last year, and the year before that. EG you buy more electronics and gas (cheaper), and less clothing and food (more expensive), but your overall spending remains ~50% of your income, which hasn't changed. Wages are usually the primary driver of higher CPI measu…

> Inflation has occurred outside of CPI basket, most notably in equity markets and real estate prices in large urban cities Those are assets rather than goods. They are neither produced nor consumed. That being said, yeah, it's no mystery that low rates have caused asset price inflation, not consumer price inflation.

The problem with your comment is that durable goods do in fact have many of the characteristics which are desireable of financial vehicles and assets: utility/value, portability, indestructibility, homogeneity, divisibility, stability, cognixability. (William Stanley Jevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange https://archive.org/stream/moneyexchange00jevorich#page/n7/m...)

And whilst land may not be particularly portable, land ownership is.

Other productive assets: metals, grain, productive plant, etc., may also have financial asset value. Also goods which aren't particularly useful such as fine art.

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#179

I'm still learning all the tendencies of these macroeconomic trends... So, this should mean mortgage loan rates, savings account interest rates, and inflation are all now on an upward trend. Right? And thus housing prices should begin to curb, since the cost of loans making buying houses more expensive and less appealing, thus lowering demand. (I've already noticed increasing savings account rates and mortgage rates,…

Correct on housing. Low interest rates tend to increase housing prices. Rising interest rates tend to decrease them. The rent paid on money captures the rent paid to housing owners. It's a bit like a Georgian land tax, except that banks win.

Re: Bank of Canada increases overnight rate target to 1 per cent

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call BS unless you provide proof.

Unless I'm reading the reports wrong, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) the average price of a detached housed in the "416" (Toronto) area in July 2017 was $1,304,288. In August it was $1,191,052. So that means a -8.7% change from July to August alone. Numbers for recent months - Detached houses in "416" area code: August: $1,191,052 July: $1,304,288 June: $1,386,524 May: $1,503,868 April: $1,578,542…

You are talking average selling prices going down.

We are asking about examples of actual prices of homes going down. They are not the same thing.

The price of homes can actual stay flat or even go up while the average sold price goes down.

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