Ontario Mortgage Rates: April 2020

I’m pulling the April 2020 BoC and market releases so I can keep this one month-specific too. April 2020 -- Canadian Mortgage & Housing Market Snapshot

1) Bank of Canada rate decisions - Date: April 15, 2020 - Decision: No change - Overnight rate: 0.25% - Context/rationale: The Bank said 0.25% was its effective lower bound and kept the rate there while expanding market-support operations. The focus had shifted from rate cuts to credit-market functioning, liquidity, and keeping borrowing channels open during the COVID shutdown. - Notable detail: The BoC also announced / expanded market operations, including: - continued purchases of at least $5 billion/week of Government of Canada bonds - a new Provincial Bond Purchase Program of up to $50 billion - a new Corporate Bond Purchase Program of up to $10 billion

2) Mortgage rate snapshot -- April 2020 April 2020 was still a distorted rate environment. - Prime rate: about 2.45% by April, after the March emergency BoC cuts - Variable rates: - in theory dropped sharply because prime collapsed - in practice, lenders widened spreads/premiums, so borrower savings were not always proportional - competitive variable offerings were still generally in the low-2% to mid-2% range, depending on lender/channel - 5-year fixed: - generally around the mid-2% to low-3% range - lower than pre-pandemic, but not collapsing in lockstep with the overnight rate - Important caveat: I did not find a clean national primary source for an exact Canada-wide “average 5-year fixed” and “average variable” for April 2020 only, so these are approximate market ranges, not official averages.

Canada (national) From CREA’s April 2020 reporting: - Home sales: down 56.8% month-over-month from March - Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales: down 57.6% year-over-year - National average sale price: about $488,000 - down 1.3% year-over-year - New listings: down 55.7% month-over-month - Months of inventory: about 5.1 months - Interpretation: April 2020 was the first full month of COVID lockdown conditions and produced record declines in activity.

GTA / Ontario proxy From TRREB April 2020 reporting: - Sales: 2,975 - Year-over-year sales change: -67% - Average selling price: $821,293 - essentially flat YoY (secondary summaries say roughly unchanged vs April 2019) - New listings: down 64% year-over-year - Sales-to-new-listings ratio: 48% - indicating balanced market territory - Interpretation: Activity collapsed, but prices did not fall nearly as much as sales did.

Ontario-wide I did not find a clean primary Ontario-wide April 2020 dataset in this pass that I’m comfortable quoting directly. The strongest Ontario market evidence here remains TRREB / GTA.

Federal / Finance Canada - The new insured-mortgage benchmark rate that had been announced in February was supposed to take effect April 6, 2020 - However, search-result evidence from mortgage-industry reporting indicates the implementation was suspended / deferred as the pandemic worsened - This is an important April 2020 mortgage-policy point because it meant the insured stress-test change did not roll in as originally planned

OSFI - April 9, 2020: OSFI announced continued regulatory flexibility measures in response to COVID-19 - April 16, 2020: OSFI published COVID-related FAQs on its pandemic-response measures - These steps were part of the broader effort to support financial-system resilience and continued lending ### Practical significance April 2020 policy was dominated by: - maintaining credit availability - easing prudential pressure - managing liquidity and mortgage-deferral realities - delaying or softening rule changes that could tighten credit during a crisis

FSRA - I did not verify a major FSRA mortgage-brokering rule change that was specifically a defining April 2020 headline

Notable headline - Reporting in April 2020 said one of Canada’s large private lenders halted redemptions - That is one of the clearest month-specific alternative-lending stress signals I found

Best month-specific takeaway - In April 2020, non-bank / alternative mortgage funding moved from “stress emerging” to visible strain

6) Notable events -- April 2020 ### Major market headlines - April 15: BoC holds at 0.25% and shifts into full market-support mode - April 2020 housing market collapse - national sales down 56.8% MoM - GTA sales down 67% YoY - Prices stayed more resilient than volumes - activity froze, but prices did not crater in the same proportion - Alternative/private lender stress becomes visible - redemption freezes / tighter credit tone - Mortgage deferrals and lender flexibility - became central themes of the month

What defined April 2020 April was the first full lockdown month, so it was less about “normal housing-market fundamentals” and more about: - frozen activity - emergency policy support - liquidity / deferrals - operational disruption across mortgage origination and funding

---

Bottom line for April 2020 - BoC: held at 0.25% on April 15 - Mortgage rates: variable rates were lower on paper because prime fell, but lender spreads widened; fixed rates were lower than pre-COVID but still not ultra-cleanly aligned with policy rates - Housing market: first full COVID-lockdown shock month - Canada: sales down 56.8% MoM - GTA: sales down 67% YoY - Policy: focus moved from cutting rates to credit support, market functioning, and regulatory flexibility - Alternative lending: clear signs of stress and funding pressure

Sources - Bank of Canada -- April 15, 2020 decision - CREA April 2020 release (surfaced in search results) - Zoocasa summary of CREA April 2020 - Zoocasa summary of TRREB April 2020 - Finance Canada February 2020 benchmark-rate announcement (relevant because implementation was to occur in April) - Search-result evidence on delayed implementation / OSFI flexibility: - - - - Alternative lending / lender stress: - -

Caveats - You asked for April 2020 only, so I’ve kept this tightly tied to that month. - I could verify the BoC April 15 hold strongly from the primary source. - I got strong month-specific housing numbers from search results and secondary summaries citing CREA/TRREB, but I did not directly extract every primary CREA/TRREB table in this run. - I did not find a clean primary Ontario-wide April 2020 housing dataset. - The exact “market average” mortgage-rate picture for April 2020 is still fuzzy in public sources, so I’m giving approximate market ranges rather than fake precision.