MLN NewsStream

Rate-weary mortgagors have been waiting for this signal.

The Fed Chair has suddenly shifted his tone and now appears more willing to let high rates do their work, with potentially no further hikes...for now.

Here was Jerome Powell's money quote from Friday:

For those who want to peer into the real estate thinking of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs), Knight Frank's "Wealth Report" is right up their alley.

UHNWIs are defined as people with a net worth of U.S. $30 million or more, including their primary residence. There were 24,821 in Canada in 2022, up 87.4% since 2017.

The number of high-net-worth Canadians with $1+ million net worth, including their primary residence, totalled 3,072,771 last year. Surging home values helped that number grow 87.1% since 2017 versus 42.5% worldwide.

Here's what else the 2023 "Wealth Report" found, with mortgage implications near the end:

The Competition Bureau announced Friday that it "has obtained a court order to advance a civil investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct by Dominion Lending Centres Inc. (DLC)."

"This includes examining certain practices that limit mortgage brokers' ability to use the technology solutions of their choice," its press release said.

The action relates mainly to DLC charging mortgage agents $200 per file to use specific competing mortgage submission platforms (a.k.a. "Point of Sale" systems). POS competitor Finmo reportedly initiated the complaint. Finmo goes head to head with DLC Group's wholly-owned Newton platform.

• Rate alert: Be careful with floating those rate holds on fixed mortgages. The 4-year swap—a preferred fixed-rate funding gauge (chart above)—closed at over a 2-month high today. This is a made-in-Canada move. Our 5-year yield is up 30 bps this week versus just 14 bps for the U.S. 5-year. Thank you, CPI.  
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