May 2014 Canadian Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Mortgage competition pushes rates to 1.99%





A Canadian lender has pushed mortgage rates to their lowest level in at least two years in a bold move to gain market share and publicity.





Investors Group cut its three-year variable mortgage rate to prime minus 1.01 per cent, or 1.99 per cent, on Monday.





It appears to be the lowest rate in the market, although it is not a record. "Variable rates, in general, have been below 2 per cent before," says Kurtis Elliott, a business analyst at RateHub.ca. For instance, five-year variable mortgage rates below 2 per cent were available in the spring of 2010.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Tree planting becoming full-time employment for Canadian youth








Tree-planting has been a popular money-making gig among students for decades, but for Brontie Hladysh, it's more than a summer job. In a tight job market, it has become the way she makes her living and finances her travels.





And she's not alone. With the challenges facing graduates who are trying to find scarce entry-level positions in the professions they've studied for, tree-planting companies are seeing a shift from predominantly student planters who are looking to make tuition and rent money, to more young people who are making it their full-time career.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Foreign central banks load up on the loonie





Foreign central banks now hold roughly $200-billion (U.S.) worth of Canadian
dollar debt, representing 1.8 per cent of the $11-trillion in official foreign
reserves worldwide, according to a Bank of Canada study released Tuesday.






Demand for Canadian dollars is coming mainly from emerging economies, not
advanced economies, who still prefer the traditional reserve currencies ` the
U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound and Swiss franc.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Home prices showing 'early signs of accelerating'





Canadian home prices appear to be picking up a little steam.





The gains come even after a sluggish winter for home sales, and forecasts from a number of economists for price growth to peter out.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadians' spendthrift ways





No more shrill warnings about the dangers of high household debt levels. I`m moving on.





Don`t freak ` the personal finance law that debt is bad has not been repealed. Debt makes you vulnerable to a drop in income or job loss, and it may prevent you from saving enough for retirement. Reducing the amount you owe is a good thing to do, period.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Oil rich provinces not just Canada's best economic performers, world-beaters as well





OTTAWA - A new report from the Conference Board puts Canada's three oil rich provinces on top of the world in terms of economic performance.





For the rest of the country the news is not so stellar.





The think-tank's annual economic report card comparing 16 of the world's richest countries puts Canada in fifth place overall, a one spot better than last year and behind Australia, Ireland, the United States and Norway.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Resource-driven provinces get top grade





CALGARY - The resource-driven economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador earned top grades of A+ for their economic performance in a report by the Conference Board of Canada.





The report, How Canada Performs: Economy, looked at Canada`s 10 provinces as well as 16 advanced countries.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Loonie at four-month high amid strong housing data





TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed at a four-month high Thursday while traders digested a stronger than expected reading on the housing sector and awaited the release of the April employment report Friday morning.





The currency gained 0.61 of a cent to 92.4 cents US as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that housing starts came in at an annualized rate of 195,000 in April, higher than the 175,000 that economists had expected.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian Millenials doin better than boomer parents





The kids are alright. Canadian Millennials are already doing better than their Boomer parents were at the same age during the 1980s.





While baby boomers prospered financially in the past 30 years, their kids ` despite being saddled with more debt and costlier homes ` are set to start their careers and family life on firmer footing, according to a new report from BMO Economics released today.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian home sales jump in April, but fall from a year-ago level





TORONTO (Reuters) - Sales of existing homes in Canada jumped in April from March as the spring market roared to life, though they fell from year-ago levels, the Canadian Real Estate Association said on Thursday.





The industry group said sales were up 2.7 percent last month from March, the third straight month of gains after a particularly brutal winter that kept buyers out of the market.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Young adults still living at home a growing trend





Back when blogging was a novelty, the ultimate insult to throw at someone was to say the author was a loser who still lived in his or her parents' basement.





The assumption being, if you're 20 or older and not in school and you still live with your parents, you are one big nerd.





But that stigma no longer applies as more and more twentysomethings remain at home for various reasons.





Recent statistics show almost half Metro Vancouverites in their 20s still live at home, the second highest rate in Canada.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

The loony anti-Keystone campaign





It`s a pipeline, for crying out loud. The United States already has 185,000 miles of liquid petroleum pipelines, 320,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines, and more than 2,000,000 miles of gas distribution pipelines. Using the latest steel, valves and other technologies to build another 1,179 miles of pipe`to move 830,000 barrels of oil per day safely from Alberta, Canada oil sands country and North Dakota`s Bakken shale territory to Texas refineries`should not be an earth-shattering matter.


KXL would create jobs`in an economy that grew at a pathetic Depression-era clip of 0.1% during the first quarter, and where the true jobless rate (unemployed, underemployed and those no longer looking) is almost 13 percent, and much worse for minorities.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Millennials may be richer than you think





TORONTO - Many millennials may not be living in their parents' basements after all.





A new report by BMO Economics suggests that young Canadians, specifically those between 25 and 34 years old, are on average richer than their parents were at that age.





Using Statistics Canada data and other metrics, the study found that millennials today have more money than the generation preceding them at the same age.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Pipeline foes driving bitumen rail





The green lobby has done a fairly good job of disparaging oil pipelines. Now it must contemplate the growing and environmentally hazardous prospect of oil increasingly being transported by rail.





The National Energy Board revealed this week that the transport of oil by rail in Canada is growing enormously - the volume of oil exported to the U.S. in railcars increased ninefold between the start of 2012 and the end of 2013.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian oil can make the world a safer place





Given Canada`s proximity to the United States, we tend to take our peace and security for granted.

This comfortable distance from most of the world`s violence has also led us to underestimate how useful Canada might be in defusing threats elsewhere using an item some people overlook as leverage: energy.





Canadians might have a general sense that oil in particular, matters to world affairs; but given that Canada has never been a superpower, it has never been responsible for the wider world order to ensure that oil (or natural gas) flow to countries that need it. Given recent developments at home and abroad, that blissful unawareness merits re-thinking.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian economy rebounding as U.S. poised for growth





Confidence is growing that the Canadian economy is rebounding from a weather-related winter hiccup and is poised to take advantage of stronger U.S. demand.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

After a winter of frozen pockets, spending increases





OTTAWA ` Confidence is growing that the Canadian economy is rebounding from a weather-related winter hiccup and is poised to take advantage of stronger U.S. demand.





International forecasting house IHS Economics ` formerly known as IHS Global Insight ` became the latest to offer a relatively positive spin on Canadian prospects as it predicted growth picking up for the next three years.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Tragic rail line to move oil again





The company purchasing the assets of the railroad responsible
for the fiery oil train derailment that claimed 47 lives in Quebec plans to
resume oil shipments after track safety improvements are made, the firm`s top
executive said on Friday.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Why those reports about Canada's healthy economy feel false





There is a wide disconnect between the data about Canada`s economic strength and how Canadians actually feel about the economy, says a new consumer report.





The report from Toronto ad agency Bensimon Byrne found that, while Canada has recorded GDP growth every year since the end of the last recession, only 57 per cent of Canadians believe it`s growing. That`s 18 percentage points lower than before the last recession.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Real estate goes global





The most expensive housing market in North America is not where you`d think. It`s not New York City or Orange County, California, but Vancouver, British Columbia. Now, Vancouver is a beautiful city`a thriving deep-water port, a popular site for TV and movie shoots. By all accounts, it is a wonderful place to live. But nothing about its economy explains why`in a city where the median income is only around seventy grand`single-family houses now sell for close to a million dollars apiece and ordinary condos go for five or six hundred thousand dollars. `If you look at per-capita incomes, we look like Reno or Nashville,` Andy Yan, an urban planner at the Vancouver-based firm Bing Thom Architects, told me. `But our housing prices easily compete with San Francisco`s.`





Read the full article here.