The Bank of Canada is expected to raise interest rates again this week as forecasters say the economy has not softened enough for the central bank to back off.
I mean, really, all I want is a home to live in, and if that means all the people who overleveraged mortgages to buy up the entire market with no intention of living in them have to put these homes back into the market, I’m game.
It doesn’t work that way. The higher rates are going to negatively affect regular people who did NOT over leverage themselves, and bought homes to live in much more than it will affect wealthy investors.
It will also make it harder for you to buy a home. If prices drop slightly that’s great, but if it’s because interest rates are higher, then it will be just as unaffordable for you since you will still need to borrow most of the money for the home, and the cost of borrowing just doubled, meaning your far less likely to even qualify for a mortgage.
Higher interest rates don’t only affect greedy over leveraged investors.
Regular people are seeing their monthly mortgage payments increase by up to ~40%.
I get it. You’re probably so frustrated at never getting to own a home that you’re fine with seeing this nightmare unfold because all you have to do is cover your eyes to the parts you don’t want to see.
You will never afford a home if rates keep rising either.
Prices need to drop more than slightly to make buying a home feasable, and my partner and I combined make six figures. Rates have been incredibly low over the past decade and it’s led to wealthy speculators and companies buying everything up, and it’s completely unsustainable. This is correcting things to be closer to where they were historically when housing was affordable.
Yes I understand all of that. My point is that this “correction” isn’t actually going to make it more affordable for you. So far the market is holding quite steadily even as rates have doubled recently.
Unless you’re paying in cash, any price drop due to higher interest rates won’t make it easier for you because you’ll have to pay those higher borrowing rates.
Maybe as millions of regular people come up for renewal over the course of the next few years, and the higher rates force some to sell, you will somehow be able to snap up your dream home in cash, beating out the wealthy who have more than enough cash to compete with you.
Repeat after me: higher rates will not make it more affordable for you. The rich will still have more cash than you and will be far less affected by higher rates, and they will be buying up property in even higher proportions now. Because those of us who aren’t rich still need to borrow, and borrowing rates are much higher now.
I understand how the problem was created and I share your frustration but simply raising rates at this speed is not going to solve the issue of affordability .
Housing is unaffordable along with many other essentials because our governments refuse to adequately tax the rich, leaving them more than enough capital to seize markets and in fact giving them financial tools to avoid taxes which drive up prices.
Is there any evidence that landlords are colliding on prices? That usually doesn’t happen in a market with a sufficient (non-ologopoly) number of sellers.
They don’t need to collude, if you own a mortgage on a home and you’re renting it, a rate hike has just increased your costs and so you need to increase your price.
It’s pretty well established that there’s a housing shortage.
I’m just a little confused by your “greedy landlords” descriptor. The price is dictated by the market, not any particular party. After all as you say, there’s a housing shortage, so prices are up.
The price is determined by the market but real estate in Canada is not an efficient market.
Maybe greedy is not needed, but it’s my belief that landlords do not create a significant market force for additional housing in our market, which is the argument for their existence.
I mean, really, all I want is a home to live in, and if that means all the people who overleveraged mortgages to buy up the entire market with no intention of living in them have to put these homes back into the market, I’m game.
It doesn’t work that way. The higher rates are going to negatively affect regular people who did NOT over leverage themselves, and bought homes to live in much more than it will affect wealthy investors.
It will also make it harder for you to buy a home. If prices drop slightly that’s great, but if it’s because interest rates are higher, then it will be just as unaffordable for you since you will still need to borrow most of the money for the home, and the cost of borrowing just doubled, meaning your far less likely to even qualify for a mortgage.
Higher interest rates don’t only affect greedy over leveraged investors.
Regular people are seeing their monthly mortgage payments increase by up to ~40%.
I get it. You’re probably so frustrated at never getting to own a home that you’re fine with seeing this nightmare unfold because all you have to do is cover your eyes to the parts you don’t want to see.
You will never afford a home if rates keep rising either.
Prices need to drop more than slightly to make buying a home feasable, and my partner and I combined make six figures. Rates have been incredibly low over the past decade and it’s led to wealthy speculators and companies buying everything up, and it’s completely unsustainable. This is correcting things to be closer to where they were historically when housing was affordable.
Yes I understand all of that. My point is that this “correction” isn’t actually going to make it more affordable for you. So far the market is holding quite steadily even as rates have doubled recently.
Unless you’re paying in cash, any price drop due to higher interest rates won’t make it easier for you because you’ll have to pay those higher borrowing rates.
Maybe as millions of regular people come up for renewal over the course of the next few years, and the higher rates force some to sell, you will somehow be able to snap up your dream home in cash, beating out the wealthy who have more than enough cash to compete with you.
Repeat after me: higher rates will not make it more affordable for you. The rich will still have more cash than you and will be far less affected by higher rates, and they will be buying up property in even higher proportions now. Because those of us who aren’t rich still need to borrow, and borrowing rates are much higher now.
I understand how the problem was created and I share your frustration but simply raising rates at this speed is not going to solve the issue of affordability .
Housing is unaffordable along with many other essentials because our governments refuse to adequately tax the rich, leaving them more than enough capital to seize markets and in fact giving them financial tools to avoid taxes which drive up prices.
The greedy landlords can just crank up the rent, which is why an average 1 bedroom in Ontario is now $2k/month.
That’s more than my mortgage payment and home insurance, and I bought during the pandemic.
Is there any evidence that landlords are colliding on prices? That usually doesn’t happen in a market with a sufficient (non-ologopoly) number of sellers.
They don’t need to collude, if you own a mortgage on a home and you’re renting it, a rate hike has just increased your costs and so you need to increase your price.
It’s pretty well established that there’s a housing shortage.
I’m just a little confused by your “greedy landlords” descriptor. The price is dictated by the market, not any particular party. After all as you say, there’s a housing shortage, so prices are up.
The price is determined by the market but real estate in Canada is not an efficient market.
Maybe greedy is not needed, but it’s my belief that landlords do not create a significant market force for additional housing in our market, which is the argument for their existence.