Ontario Mortgage Rates: March 2021

March 2021 -- Canadian Mortgage & Housing Market Snapshot

1) Bank of Canada rate decisions - Date: March 10, 2021 - Decision: No change - Overnight rate: 0.25% - Rationale: The Bank said the economy and housing market were stronger than expected, but overall economic slack remained significant and the recovery was still uneven. It kept the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of 0.25% and maintained quantitative easing, signaling that extraordinary support was still needed. - Important context: March 2021 was a hold month, but the market was beginning to focus more seriously on rising bond yields and the possibility that fixed mortgage rates would drift upward ahead of any BoC move.

2) Mortgage rate snapshot -- March 2021 The broad March 2021 mortgage-rate picture was:

• Prime rate: about 2.45%
• Variable rates:
• generally still in the low-2% range
• remained attractive because the BoC had not moved
• 5-year fixed:
• still broadly in the low-2% range, but rising from the absolute lows
• market commentary in early 2021 increasingly noted that fixed rates were moving up as bond yields rose
• Practical takeaway:
• March 2021 was still a low-rate environment overall
• but it was one of the first months where borrowers started to notice fixed-rate upward pressure

Caveat: I did not find a single authoritative national source giving one exact Canada-wide “average 5-year fixed” and “average variable” for March 2021 only, so these remain approximate market ranges.

Canada (national) Month-specific reporting for March 2021 showed the market still running at extraordinary levels: - National home sales: up roughly 76.2% year-over-year - National average sale price: about $716,828 - up roughly 31.6% year-over-year - Months of inventory: around 2 months or slightly below - Interpretation: - March 2021 was one of the hottest months of the entire pandemic housing boom - demand remained extremely strong while inventory stayed critically tight

GTA / Ontario proxy For TRREB / GTA March 2021: - Sales: 15,652 - Year-over-year sales change: +97% - Average selling price: $1,097,565 - up 21.6% year-over-year - New listings: 22,709 - up 57.7% year-over-year - Interpretation: - the GTA market was exceptionally hot - even with a big rise in listings, demand was still strong enough to push prices sharply higher - average GTA home prices moved decisively above $1.09 million ### Ontario-wide I did not find a clean primary Ontario-wide March 2021 housing dataset in this run that I’m comfortable quoting directly. The strongest Ontario-specific evidence here remains TRREB / GTA.

4) Regulatory / policy news -- March 2021 I did not verify a major new OSFI, FSRA, or federal mortgage-policy shock landing specifically in March 2021 on the scale of earlier 2020 pandemic measures.

Best month-specific characterization - March 2021 policy was mainly: - BoC hold at 0.25% - continued QE / support - rising market concern over: - housing excess - low inventory - affordability - and rising fixed-rate pressure from bond yields - No fresh March-only mortgage-rule change clearly stood out in this pass ## 5) Private / alternative lending -- March 2021 I did not find a clean Ontario-only private-lending data release for March 2021 in this run.

Best month-specific characterization - private and alternative lenders remained relevant for: - self-employed borrowers - borrowers outside prime qualification - buyers affected by stress-test or income-documentation constraints - But the dominant March 2021 market narrative was still the mainstream housing boom - I do not have a clean March-only Ontario private-lending metric to quote

Major headlines - March 10: BoC holds at 0.25% - National housing market remains red hot - average price rises above $716,000 - GTA average price breaks above $1.09 million - Sales surge year-over-year - both nationally and in the GTA - Fixed-rate pressure starts getting attention - even without a BoC move, markets were increasingly watching bond yields and fixed mortgage pricing

Fraud / court / lender events - I did not find a single clearly dominant mortgage fraud case, lender collapse, or court ruling that I could confidently verify as a defining March 2021 mortgage headline in this run ---

Bottom line for March 2021 - BoC: held at 0.25% on March 10 - Mortgage rates: still very low overall, but fixed rates were beginning to drift higher - Housing market: extremely hot - Canada: average price about $716,828, sales roughly +76.2% YoY - GTA: 15,652 sales, average price $1,097,565 - Policy: no major new March-only mortgage-policy shock verified - Alternative lending: still relevant, but not the defining market story of the month

Caveats - You asked for March 2021 only, so I kept this month-specific. - I could verify the BoC March 10 hold strongly from the primary source. - I relied on month-specific market reporting and search-result evidence for national and GTA housing figures; I did not directly extract a clean primary Ontario-wide dataset in this run. - I also did not** find a single authoritative national “average 5-year fixed / average variable” series for March 2021 only, so the mortgage-rate section remains an approximate market snapshot rather than a precise official average.