Canadian Real Estate News Headlines (May 18th 2019)

Hello everyone. How are you?

I provide you with Canada’s news headlines for real estate news for today.

Bank Of Canada Staff Warn Home Equity May Be Concealing Financial Distress

Canadian real estate owners may be hiding financial vulnerability using complex debt products. Bank of Canada (BoC) staff published a new analytical note examining new home equity data. The new data gives more insights into home equity borrowing, and how the debt is drawn. Out are traditional HELOCs, held separately from the mortgage. In are mortgages combined with HELOC components, allowing owners to withdraw principal immediately.

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Money laundering is Canada's problem — not just the West Coast's, expert warns

The author of a report on money laundering in Canada says dirty money isn't unique to British Columbia, and needs to be addressed on a nationwide scale.

"Everybody thinks it's a B.C., problem… But I don't think the other provinces or the federal government can put their heads in the sand and say 'Well, it's not our problem, it's B.C.'s problem,'" said Maureen Maloney, professor at the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University.

"It really is a Canada-wide issue that has to be dealt with."

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Possibility of recession, spike in risky borrowing threaten Canada’s financial system

The rising probability of a recession and a spike in riskier borrowing by Canadian companies are among the growing threats to the country’s financial system, the Bank of Canada says.

Risks to the system have increased “slightly” over the past year, largely because the probability of a severe recession is “elevated and increasing,” the central bank warned Thursday in its annual Financial System Review.

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