Ontario Mortgage Rates: December 2022

December 2022 -- Canadian Mortgage & Housing Market Snapshot

1) Bank of Canada rate decisions - Date: December 7, 2022 - Decision: Rate hike - Overnight rate: 3.75% → 4.25% - Change: +50 basis points - Rationale: The Bank said inflation remained well above target and broad-based, the labour market was still tight, and more tightening was required to restore price stability. At the same time, it acknowledged the economy was slowing and signaled it would consider whether rates needed to rise further. - Important context: December 2022 was notable because the BoC was still hiking, but its language began sounding more like the cycle was moving closer to a pause.

2) Mortgage rate snapshot -- December 2022 The broad December 2022 mortgage-rate picture was:

• Prime rate: moved up to about 6.45% after the December 7 hike
• Variable rates:
• generally moved into the high-5% to mid-6% range
• depending on lender discounts and borrower profile
• 5-year fixed:
• generally in the mid-5% to low-6% range
• still elevated, though exact pricing varied with bond-market conditions and lender strategy
• Practical takeaway:
• December 2022 remained a very restrictive mortgage-rate environment
• borrower qualification, payment shock, and affordability pressures were all severe compared with the prior two years

Caveat: I did not find a single authoritative national source giving an exact Canada-wide “average 5-year fixed” and “average variable” for December 2022 only, so these remain approximate market ranges.

Canada (national) Month-specific reporting for December 2022 showed: - National home sales: up 1.3% month-over-month from November - National average sale price: about $626,318 - down about 12.0% year-over-year - Months of inventory: around 4.2 months - Interpretation: - sales were still weak by historical standards, though there was a small month-over-month uptick - prices remained below year-ago levels - inventory had rebuilt significantly relative to the 2021 boom

GTA / Ontario proxy For TRREB / GTA December 2022: - Sales: 3,117 - Year-over-year sales change: -39.0% - Average selling price: $1,051,216 - down 9.2% year-over-year - New listings: 4,074 - up 1.0% year-over-year - Interpretation: - GTA sales remained very weak - average prices had fallen meaningfully below December 2021 levels - the market stayed in correction mode

Ontario-wide I did not find a clean primary Ontario-wide December 2022 housing dataset in this run that I’m comfortable quoting directly. The strongest Ontario-specific evidence here remains TRREB / GTA.

Major policy development - December 7, 2022: BoC raises overnight rate by 50 bps to 4.25% - This had direct mortgage-market consequences: - higher variable-rate payments - more trigger-rate pressure - further qualification stress - weaker housing demand ### OSFI / FSRA / federal - I did not verify a separate major OSFI, FSRA, or federal mortgage-rule shock landing specifically in December 2022 that rivaled the BoC hike - So the dominant December policy story was: - continued rate tightening, with growing talk of an approaching pause

5) Private/Alternative lending -- December 2022 I did not find a clean Ontario-only private-lending data release for December 2022 in this run.

Best month-specific characterization - as higher payments and qualification stress persisted, private and alternative lending likely remained relevant for: - borrowers under refinance stress - borrowers failing requalification - borrowers needing bridge or restructuring solutions - But I do not have a clean December-only Ontario metric to quote directly - The dominant market story remained: - broad correction under much higher borrowing costs ## 6) Notable events -- December 2022

Major headlines - December 7: BoC hikes 50 bps to 4.25% - National prices remain below year-ago levels - GTA prices also remain lower year-over-year - Inventory continues rebuilding - a key difference versus the ultra-tight markets of 2021 / early 2022

What defined December 2022 The defining themes were: - high borrowing costs - weak sales - price correction - rising inventory - a growing sense that the tightening cycle might be nearing a pause ### 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 December 2022 mortgage headline in this run

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Bottom line for December 2022 - BoC: hiked from 3.75% to 4.25% on December 7 - Mortgage rates: remained high; variable rates moved into the high-5% / mid-6% zone and fixeds were generally in the mid-5% / low-6% range - Housing market: still in correction mode - Canada: average price about $626,318 - GTA: 3,117 sales, average price $1,051,216 - Policy: the defining December event was the 50 bp BoC hike - Alternative lending: likely more relevant at the margin, but no clean December-only Ontario figure verified

Sources - Bank of Canada -- December 7, 2022 decision - CREA December 2022 release title / month-specific market reporting - TRREB market-watch references / December 2022 figures surfaced in search results - Secondary coverage summarizing December 2022 GTA data: - - - Rate references - - -

Caveats - You asked for December 2022 only, so I kept this month-specific. - I could verify the BoC December 7 hike strongly from the primary source. - I relied on month-specific market reporting and search-result evidence for national and GTA 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 December 2022 only, so the mortgage-rate section remains an approximate market snapshot rather than a precise official average.