Visiting here is bringing you the knowledge of how your Association operates to support and protect your best interests and connect you to the top resources and expertise in the key areas of concern that could affect your rights and reasonable enjoyment of property. Like a family we are here to stand by you and fight adversities that will in turn make us all stronger and closer.
WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER.
Canada's housing affordability problem too big for governments to solve alone: CMHC report
'The scale of the challenge is so large that the private sector must be involved'
MAJOR CRISIS IN THE MAKING
The scale of Canada’s housing affordability problem is too big for governments to solve alone, according to a new report released Monday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“The scale of the challenge is so large that the private sector must be involved — governments cannot do this on their own,” the CMHC argued, suggesting solutions that vary from financial support and more construction of social and affordable housing for those with lower incomes, as well as increased supply of housing aimed at the market.
The report, authored by the agency’s deputy chief economist, Aled ab Iorwerth, cited statistics showing Canada has experienced the second-highest rate of growth in house prices among a range of developed countries over the last decade.
Since 2010, the price of housing in Canada has skyrocketed by 105 per cent — just behind New Zealand’s 111 per cent growth — the report released Monday said. By comparison, prices in the United States have grown 47 per cent over the same period.
BANKS' LEVERED RISK EXPOSURES TIGHTENS HOUSING AND RENTAL MARKETS
With Canada’s scorching-hot housing markets getting summarily cooled by the central bank’s efforts to dampen inflation, the Big Six banks will face a crucial test to their resilience, according to a new report from DBRS Morningstar. Drawing on data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Real Estate Association, the report noted that national home prices have dropped for three straight months, with June representing the steepest monthly drop since 2005.
“Although the magnitude of the impact of monetary policy tightening on the housing market is still unclear, rising rates will continue to erode housing affordability at current price levels, further depressing demand and putting downward pressure on housing prices,” the report said. In all, this leads us to reiterate the global economic concerns/factors we reported a month ago as evidence that the Canadian Banks and the economy are also being swept under the rug by the terrible economic conditions in global housing, food, energy and interest costs.
Here is a summary of critical global factors that can be tied to the fact that the planet is reaching its limits to growth. Meaning that we have reached the tipping point that cannot be reversed with local band aid approaches. If we do not address these global factors - then the outlook for global society beyond a few more years is highly speculative, at best.
As a consequence of this variable equation, there are 50 countries now facing severe economic difficulties breeding social unrest and shortages of living essentials. As they collapse the interdependent global economy will add more countries to the list as both supply chains and currencies disappear from existence. Regional conflicts will therefore run the risk of quickly spreading as nations become desperate. to maintain civil order.
The underlying cause for all this economic decline and turmoil relates to the historic teachings of surreal and fictitious Salvadore Dali type economic theories and beliefs espoused by top schools, universities and institutions. Teachings and ideas that failed to understand that the world economy is a quantitative system with limited absolute physics-based materials and minerals available; powered by depleting finite energy reserves.
Banks more vulnerable to economic shocks due to decline of government-backed mortgage insurance, Moodys finds
Wind-down in government stimulus support expected to result in uptick in mortgage delinquencies
Canada’s big banks have become more vulnerable to losses from economic shocks after increasing exposure to red-hot real estates markets in Vancouver and Toronto at a time when the level of government-backed residential mortgage default insurance was declining, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service.
Another contributing factor is the winding down of COVID-19 government support programs such as the Canada Recovery Benefit, which have been keeping households solvent and helping to maintain high overall credit quality, the ratings agency said in the report to be widely released on Wednesday.
TOP ECONOMIST WARNS
' We Are In Debt Trap...'
“Our view is that there will be an uptick in residential mortgage delinquency once all support measures are exhausted,” said the report’s author Jason Mercer. “Mortgage losses will likely rise as stimulus wanes.”
The ratings agency noted that the supports including income supplements put in place to offset the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are disappearing at a time when fewer residential mortgages are insured.
A new poll shows the majority of Ontario renters are having to choose between food and paying their rents.
When it comes to housing affordability, this province is on fire.
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario
With a provincial election just days away, the housing crisis is top of mind for many. With each passing month, rental rates are soaring across the province. Compared just to this time last year, average rents for a 1-bedroom unit have increased almost 13% in Toronto, 15% in Burlington, 12% in Guelph, and almost 10% in Hamilton. Rents have risen in a province that already has some of the highest in the country.
Decades of austerity driven policy are forcing renters across Ontario to continuously try to make do with less. Wages, of course, have not kept pace with rising costs of living. A minimum wage of $15/hour still lags behind what Ontarians need to live. Experts have demonstrated a living wage should be much higher than that – in Toronto, for example, a living wage is $22.08/hr.
IS FOOD INSECURITY IN ONTARIO NOW A CRISIS?
Some may blame the dire affordability crisis in Ontario solely on the pandemic. However, rental costs had been on the rise before the pandemic, just as wages had failed to keep up. The pandemic exacerbated the crisis, but it did not create it. What’s more, the pandemic has had widely differing impacts depending on wealth. The pandemic itself has been very, very kind to the most wealthy among us. A new report from OxFam International has found that “billionaires have seen their fortunes increase as much in 24 months as they did in 23 years,” and “the combined crises of COVID-19, rising inequality, and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022, reversing decades of progress. This is the equivalent of one million people every 33 hours.”
What does this global money grab look like in the context of Ontario?
Ordinary Ontarians are the ones being sacrificed in the name of profit as the financialization of housing continues – and renters are feeling the impacts most of all.
ACTO commissioned EKOS to conduct a province-wide poll of Ontario renters this month. We now have the results of the poll, and the findings are stark. Renters are being squeezed in an extreme affordability crisis that affects them in every single part of their lives, and very little is being done to help them.
No one, anywhere, should have to choose between food and shelter. And yet in Ontario, that’s exactly what we’re seeing – 60% of renters said they have had to cut back on food to afford their rents. 74% had to cut back on their other spending to afford their rents.
PERFECT STORM:
FOOD AND HOUSING CRISIS, PLUS RISING INFLATION
These soaring rental rates are pushing more people with lower incomes into very precarious financial situations. 65% of low-income renters would not be able to pay their rent over the next 3 months without taking on debt, should they lose their income.
Understanding poverty is not just about measuring household income – it means we also have to look at how much people can save and how long they can cover their basic costs if they were to lose their incomes. Anyone who pays 50% or more of their income towards their shelter is at a very high risk of becoming homeless. Ontario renters are balancing on a knife’s edge to stay housed.
Affordable options for renters are dwindling
Renters are struggling to stay in their communities. 1 in 3 renters have recently considered moving to a different municipality due to an increase of rental costs. This means uprooting them, their families, possibly their jobs – every part of their life just to find a home they can afford. Even for people who are considering sacrificing so much are discovering that rents remain unaffordable almost everywhere, and competition for what’s available remains fierce. Their options for affordable, safe and secure housing dwindle day-by-day.
The solutions are multi-faceted, but one place to start is bringing back real rent control
Eliminating vacancy decontrol is a popular idea among renters. Over 80% of Ontario tenants believe there should be a limit to the amount landlords can increase the rent for a unit when it becomes vacant. We agree.
We encourage all Ontarians to reflect on their housing priorities, and look closely at each provincial party to see what’s on the table in this election. The stakes for renters could not be higher.
The average list price for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto rose by more than six per cent in September as prospective tenants continued to face a sustained increase in rents, a new report suggests.
The report, prepared by Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting, indicates that the average monthly asking price for a one-bedroom unit in Toronto reached $2,474 in September while the asking price for two-bedroom units hit $3,361.
Asking prices for one-bedroom rentals in the city have now shot up 27.5 per cent year-over-year, after bottoming out earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE WORST IS YET TO COME
OTOS
Two-bedroom apartments are up 27.7 per cent year-over-year but saw a more modest 2.9 per cent month-over-month increase in September.
In a news release, Bullpen Research & Consulting President Ben Myers said that part of the increase “is attributable to larger units on the market, and high-end building completions adding expensive listings.”
But he said that an increase in demand is also pushing rents higher, even as the housing market undergoes a significant correction.
“Rental demand has increased significantly with the continued interest rate hikes, falling ownership house prices, and changing post-pandemic preferences,” he said.
Rent prices in Toronto declined by 11 per cent annually in May 2021 and six per cent annually in May 2020 as many people left the city in search of more space during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But asking prices have been rising steadily in recent months, particularly in urban centres.
SOARING RENTS BRING EMOTIONAL/HEALTH PROBLEMS
The latest data released by Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting suggests that the average asking price across all rental types in Canada last month was up more than 15 per cent year-over year.
Vancouver had the highest average rent price at $3,225 per month, followed by Toronto at $2,855.
The average rent across Ontario was up 18.4 per cent year-over-year to $2,451 per month.
Looking specifically at condominiums, the average rental asking price in Toronto was $2,988 in September. It had previously dropped to a recent low of $2,053 in February, 2021.
“Many of the same factors that have been affecting rental demand are still influencing the market in September. Interest rate increases are damaging ownership affordability and keeping prospective buyers in the rental market. Secondly, a softening ownership market, with forecasts for further declines are keeping prospective buyers on the sidelines, waiting for the market to bottom out,” the report states.
While the demand for rentals is expected to remain elevated, the report does point out that the page views per listing in September declined for the first time in months.
The authors also noted that the rental market is seasonal, with demand often higher in the fall.
For the 44 million households who rent a home or apartment in the U.S., inflation keeps pushing costs higher and higher. Anger is rising too. It could be a breaking point.
Here’s a list of places you might imagine seeing an argument over housing policy. A city council meeting. A late-night zoning hearing. Maybe a ribbon-cutting to christen a new affordable housing complex.
Instead, there was Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Mo., on a stage dressed as the pope with a half-dozen hecklers in yellow T-shirts berating his new housing plan from the audience in front of him. Mr. Lucas had arrived at the outdoor Starlight Theater on a warm August evening for a cameo appearance in a local production of “Sister Act.” Just before he walked onto the stage, the demonstrators, who belonged to a group called KC Tenants, unfurled a banner that read “Mayor Lucas: Developing Displacement.”
A pack of uniformed security guards promptly smothered the scene. During the slow procession to the exit gates that followed, members of KC Tenants chanted, “The rent is too damn high!” while the audience tried to focus on the mayor/pope and the dancing nuns.
Such is the state of housing in America, where rising costs are flaring into pockets of resistance and rage. Take two-plus years of pandemic-fueled eviction anxiety and spiking home prices, add a growing inflation problem that is being increasingly driven by rising rents, and throw in a long-run affordable housing shortage that cities seem powerless to solve. Add it up and the 44 million U.S. households who rent a home or apartment have many reasons to be unhappy.
REMEMBER IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN
''HEY MOM - WHERE'S THE PITCHFORK?''
That unhappiness extends across the economic spectrum. At one end are renters who aspire to buy a home but have had their dreams dashed by high home prices and, now, rising mortgage rates. At the other are low-income tenants who make up the bulk of the 11 million households who spend more than half of their income on rent. In between is a hollowed-out middle class that is steadily losing ground, although not enough to qualify for much sympathy or help.
WE THE PEOPLE
The confluence of all these forces has fueled a swell of tenants’ rights activism that has brought organizing muscle and policies like rent control to cities far beyond the high-cost coasts. Kansas City, Mo., is a leading example. With a population of 500,000, where the avenues are lined with brick buildings and side streets have modest homes with raised porches, the city offers little to suggest a renters’ revolution. Zillow’s home value index puts the typical Kansas City home at $230,000, or more than $100,000 below the national level.
But with a steadily expanding economy driven by the logistics and medical industries, Kansas City has seen its rents increase 8.5 percent from a year ago, outpacing the rest of the nation, according to rental search site Apartment List. Over the past decade, Kansas City, like many places, has added a collection of high-end towers and apartments even as its stock of low-income housing has withered. The strain from rising rents, which landlords say they need to cover their costs, is creeping from people working in low-income service professions to middle-income teachers and city workers, part of a festering affordable housing crunch that spreads more widely across the nation each month.
KC Tenants is one result. Pairing aggressive protests with traditional lobbying, the group exploded onto the political scene during the pandemic and has since become instrumental in passing tenant-friendly laws like an ordinance that gives renters a lawyer during eviction proceedings. It has also left a trail of embittered opponents who find the group’s tactics, such as protesting outside judges’ homes, ill-suited to what many residents describe as a cordial Midwestern town.
“It’s a transition in politics for us,” said Mayor Lucas, a Democrat, who says he meets with the leaders of KC Tenants regularly, despite being a frequent subject of the group’s protests. “There is a new, almost tougher political edge, in the sense that there are people who are organizing and intrigued by politics and are very angry and are not coming out of the same institutions that built a lot of us.”
END OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
America’s housing problem was simmering long before the pandemic, and tenant organizing is a well-established trade. What’s changed is the depth of the housing shortage and the suddenness with which Covid-19 and inflation have tipped smaller cities into an affordability crisis. This has opened the aperture for policies once deemed politically impossible, in a wider range of markets.
Unlike homeowners, whose budget problems are blunted by a litany of tax breaks and fixed-rate mortgages, renters are mostly unprotected from rapidly rising prices. Once cities around the country passed widespread eviction moratoriums and emergency rent caps that were followed by tens of billions of dollars in pandemic rental assistance, it was only natural for housing activists to push for some of those temporary policies to be made permanent.
Politically speaking, inflation has only helped. Nationally, rents are now 20 percent higher than they were in early 2020, creating an opportunity for renter-friendly laws to get baked into long-term policy.
INFLATION OUT OF CONTROL
“People take for granted that rent is always going to go up,” said Tara Raghuveer, a co-founder of KC Tenants. “There’s so little political imagination about what could be different, and now I think that’s changing.”
A hyper-focused worker who blends the rhetoric of a revolutionary with the efficiency of a chief executive, Ms. Raghuveer also directs the Homes Guarantee campaign, which works to create tenant unions around the country. She described KC Tenants as both a local movement and national experiment through which organizing ideas can be test-driven.
“I think every national organizer should be accountable to a local base,” she said.
During a three-day visit in which I hung around the office and shadowed meetings and protests, Ms. Raghuveer returned repeatedly to an idea that has become a refrain among tenant groups: the hope that growing resentment over housing costs is fostering a broad tenant identity that will inspire a wide range of renters to organize and vote with a shared interest. In the activist nomenclature, this is known as “tenants as a class.
”That’s an audacious goal in a country where homeownership is all but defined as success. An irony of the nation’s housing problem is that it’s become so pervasive that it has created as many opportunities for cleavage as it has for coalition. Need has grown faster than resources, making housing policy a prism through which a stealth conflict between the middle class and the truly poor is filtered.
Even so, what’s clear is that in Kansas City and elsewhere tenants are becoming a real constituency. That’s not something you could say as recently as a few years ago. But a few years ago the rent wasn’t quite so high.
Getting the Data
Tara Raghuveer, KC Tenants’ founding director, working outside the East Patrol Division Station where the group camped out waiting for Board President Tiana Caldwell to be released on bond.Credit...Barrett Emke for The New York Times
