Tag Archive for: Loblaws

What goes up!

We all know that old expression “What goes up must come down”! In this day and age does this apply to our current variable rate mortgages. Before the Bank of Canada stepped in early last year our prime rate sat at 2.45%, we are currently at 6.7% after having gone up 8 times in the past year.

Inflation is now at the lowest level in a year, coming in at 5.9% vs the high of 8.1% back in June of last year. While still not the 3% target, it is still much better than where we were. In fact the price of gas has come down quite a bit since this time last year. In-fact most things are coming back to earth with the exception for the price of food.

The stubborn continued rise in the price of food I am blaming on the “Greedflation” of our grocery chains who are making record profits on the back of hurting consumers. While I am never against making a profit, they have crossed the line and continue to line their pockets in the process. After watching Clarkson’s farm on Prime recently this may be the ideal time to reach out and start getting subscriptions from our local farms and cut out the greedy grocery chains.

A quick google search will help you find many farmers or farm markets who are much more deserving of profits than any large corporation. I digress as this is still about inflation and many economists are predicting that we should be back at our 3% target by mid next year. So if this is the case then prime rate may start to come back down if the economy slows down too quickly or stalls. If you are still hanging on to your variable rate mortgage, use your best discretion about where you want to go, don’t let someone sell you on a fix rate that would come with a higher penalty to break it if that is not what you want.

Today I am thankful for a snow day to spend with my kids, neighbourhood kids who will shovel my driveway for $2, my dog who alerts us when Amazon arrives.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia Brokerage (2022-3000179) Broker (2022-3000180), Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

January 2023 Inflation report

The inflationary report for January 2023 was released by Statistics Canada yesterday and we appear to be doing better than we expected. The market consensus had predicted that inflation would drop to 6.1% from 6.3% in December 2022. Actually we dropped to 5.9% which was the lowest rate since last February. So while we saw decreases in transportaion & shelter it is actually stubbornly high for food prices which are still accelerating at the fastest pace since 1981, up 10.4%.

Since the weighting of shelter & transportation in relation to food is higher ( based on spending habits from 2002) is why our overall inflationary rate dropped. The market is estimating that the rate will decrease again in February to 5.2%. If this is the case it will turn out to be the lowest rate in a year. Thus proving the the BOC’s actions are causing a reduction to spending and in turn slowing down the economy.

However it won’t be till March 8th when the Bank of Canada meets next until we know whether these new inflationary numbers are enough to cause them to pause on the rate increases. So while we can cut down on travel and other unnecessary expenses it is harder to cut back on the necessities like food. With the our dualolopy of Empire Group ( Sobey’s) and Loblaw’s ( Superstore) making record breaking profits on the backs of consumers there is little to no pressure on them to relent on increasing prices.

Bank of Canada governor even said after these numbers were released that companies must start to bring down these prices or he will be forced to keep raising rates until that happens.

Today I am thankful the rejuvenating power of exercise, kind words from clients and the knowledge that when one door closes another one is sure to open.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia Brokerage (2022-3000179) Broker (2022-3000180), Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here