For the first time since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of Canada (BoC) announced on June 5 a reduction in its overnight interest rate from 5% to 4.75%. What does this mean for homebuyers and homeowners?

While the 0.25% cut won't drastically change things immediately, it's seen as the start of a trend toward lower rates, which will reduce mortgage costs over time.

The BoC's rate influences the interest rates that banks charge for mortgages and loans. This means that people with variable rate mortgages may soon see lower payments as their rates adjust downward.

The impact on your variable rate mortgage depends on its structure:

  • If your payments change with your lender’s prime rate, they may decrease automatically.
  • …

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The Demographia International Housing Affordability report has been the gold standard of people looking at the cost of housing all around the world. Their newly released 2024 report uses a formula that divides the Median House Price by the Median Household Income to rank individual cities. This year, Edmonton was pegged as the most affordable housing market across all of Canada's major markets.

With a median multiple of 3.6, Edmonton was pegged as a "moderately unaffordable" market, whereas Calgary's median multiple of 4.6 was deemed "seriously unaffordable".

Being the least unaffordable housing market in Canada, Edmonton is at least two-thrids more affordable than the most unaffordable market (Vancouver). Furthermore, Edmonton was tied with…

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