Ontario Mortgage Rates: March 2023

March 2023 -- Canadian Mortgage & Housing Market Snapshot

1) Bank of Canada rate decisions - Date: March 8, 2023 - Decision: No change - Overnight rate: 4.50% - Rationale: The Bank said inflation remained too high but recent data was evolving broadly in line with its January outlook. It held the rate at 4.50% while continuing its “conditional pause” to assess how previous hikes were affecting the economy. - Important context: March 2023 was the first clear hold month after the January hike-and-pause signal.

2) Mortgage rate snapshot -- March 2023 The broad March 2023 mortgage-rate picture was:

• Prime rate: about 6.70%
• Variable rates:
• generally in the high-5% to mid-6% range
• still very elevated versus pre-2022 norms
• 5-year fixed:
• generally in the mid-4% to low-5% range
• fixed pricing was still high historically, though lower than the late-2022 peak in some channels
• Practical takeaway:
• March 2023 remained a restrictive mortgage-rate environment
• but the BoC pause gave borrowers and lenders a bit more stability than they had in 2022

Caveat: I did not find a single authoritative national source giving an exact Canada-wide “average 5-year fixed” and “average variable” for March 2023 only, so these remain approximate market ranges.

Canada (national) Month-specific reporting for March 2023 showed an improving market tone: - National home sales: up 1.4% month-over-month from February - National average sale price: about $686,371 - down about 13.7% year-over-year - Months of inventory: around 4.0 months - Interpretation: - national activity remained low compared with the boom years - but the market was showing clearer signs of stabilization and modest recovery from the winter lows

GTA / Ontario proxy For TRREB / GTA March 2023: - Sales: 6,896 - Year-over-year sales change: -36.8% - Average selling price: $1,108,606 - down 14.6% year-over-year - New listings: 11,063 - down 23.1% year-over-year - Interpretation: - GTA sales were still down a lot from March 2022 - but activity had improved from the weakest months - supply remained constrained enough to support some price firming relative to the winter trough ### Ontario-wide I did not find a clean primary Ontario-wide March 2023 housing dataset in this run that I’m comfortable quoting directly. The strongest Ontario-specific evidence here remains TRREB / GTA.

Major policy development - March 8, 2023: BoC holds at 4.50% - This was important because: - it reinforced the idea that the rapid tightening cycle might be on pause - mortgage-market participants began adjusting to a more stable rate backdrop - No fresh OSFI, FSRA, or federal mortgage-rule shock clearly stood out in March 2023 in this pass

5) Private / alternative lending -- March 2023 I did not find a clean Ontario-only private-lending data release for March 2023 in this run. ### Best month-specific characterization - private / alternative lending likely remained relevant for: - borrowers failing requalification - borrowers under renewal/payment pressure - non-standard borrowers shut out of prime channels - But I do not have a clean March-only Ontario metric to quote directly - The main market story was: - stabilization under still-high rates

Major headlines - March 8: BoC holds at 4.50% - National market shows signs of stabilization - sales edge higher month-over-month - GTA prices remain below year-ago levels - but activity improves from winter lows - Inventory remains relatively limited - preventing a deeper unwind in many markets

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 2023 mortgage headline in this run

Bottom line for March 2023 - BoC: held at 4.50% on March 8 - Mortgage rates: remained restrictive, but policy stability improved relative to 2022 - Housing market: weak versus prior-year levels but stabilizing - Canada: average price about $686,371 - GTA: 6,896 sales, average price $1,108,606 - Policy: the defining March event was the BoC hold / conditional pause - Alternative lending: likely still relevant at the margin, but no clean March-only Ontario figure verified

Caveats - You asked for March 2023 only, so I kept this month-specific. - I could verify the BoC March 8 hold 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 March 2023 only, so the mortgage-rate section remains an approximate market snapshot rather than a precise official average.