This sketches an unusual scenario for the Bank of Canada as it approaches its June 7th rate decision. The economy remains resilient, with Canadians grappling with escalated interest rates and continued price pressures. Spring 2023 increasingly looks like the turnaround point for Canada’s housing market after a year-long slump, and labour markets remained firm in April.

To be sure, inflation is down significantly from the 8.1% year-on-year peak experienced last June. The initial reduction in inflation was swift and relatively straightforward, but predictably, the following phase is proving to be considerably more challenging.

The CPI was up 0.7% in April, following a 0.5% gain in March. Gasoline prices (+6.3%) contributed the most to the headline month-over-month movement. Excluding gasoline, the monthly CPI rose 0.5%. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.6%.

Gasoline prices rose 6.3% in April compared with March, the most significant monthly increase since October 2022 and contributing the most to the acceleration in the headline CPI. This increase followed an announcement from OPEC+ (countries from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus) to reduce oil output, pushing prices higher. The switch to summer blend and increased carbon levies also boosted prices.
Nevertheless, gas prices were 7.7% lower in April 2023 compared with April 2022, when prices were higher due in part to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Compared with 18 months earlier, gasoline prices were 10.0% higher in April 2023.

The year-over-year increase in the homeowners’ replacement cost index slowed for the 12th consecutive month in April (+0.2%) compared with March (+1.7%), reflecting a general cooling of the housing market.

The uptick in April inflation, especially monthly, shows that the road to 2% inflation will be bumpy. Still, the Bank of Canada will be content that their measures of core inflation continue to trend downward (see chart below). The Bank will likely continue the pause in June, but if the May employment numbers continue strong, the Governing Council will indeed warn that they will remain ever vigilant. I do not expect rate cuts this year.

Following the trend in recent months, the sales increase was broad-based but once again dominated by the B.C. Lower Mainland and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Toronto home sales, for example, rose by 27% m/m. That’s the most significant monthly increase over the past two decades, besides the rebound from the 2020 Covid lockdowns.

The benchmark price of a Toronto home rose 2.4% to C$1.11 million in April on a seasonally adjusted basis. The rise erased declines from earlier this year; prices are now up 0.5% year-to-date in the first four months of 2023.

Housing inventory is not just low; it is extremely low, although more recent data suggest that new listings rose in the first week of May. The persistent lack of new listings is hurting home affordability.

The number of newly listed homes edged up 1.6% month-over-month in April; however, the bigger picture is that the new supply remains at a 20-year low. The number of new listings hitting the Toronto market trailed far behind the 27% increase in sales at just 2.8%. That helped shrink the supply of houses on the market, which had built up over the past year by 12.3% and left the city’s active-listings-to-sales ratio, a measure of how competitive the market is for buyers, tighter than the historical average.

And Toronto’s housing market isn’t the only one seeing tighter supply and rising prices. Vancouver, long one of the country’s most expensive markets, also saw its benchmark price rise 2.4% last month.

With national sales gains vastly outpacing new listings in April, the sales-to-new listings ratio jumped to 70.2%, up from 64.1% in March. The long-term average for this measure is 55.1%.

There were 3.3 months of inventory on a national basis at the end of April 2023, down half a month from 3.8 months at the end of March. The long-term average for this measure is about five months.

The Aggregate Composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) climbed 1.6% month-over-month in April 2023 – a significant increase for a single month. It was also broad-based. A monthly price rise from March to April was observed in most local markets.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average home price was $716,000 in April 2023, down 3.9% from April 2022 but up $103,500 from January 2023, a gain owed to outsized sales rebounds in the GTA and B.C. Lower Mainland.

A turnaround in the Canadian housing market is in train. While inventory remains extremely low, homes are not only selling but also selling fast. Short-term fixed-rate mortgages are popular with buyers. A significant change from before the Bank of Canada started raising rates.

While the Bank will likely hold rates steady for the remainder of this year, I do not expect Macklem to cut rates before then. All of this depends on inflation. We will get another read on inflation tomorrow.

The fact that labour markets are still strong and housing activity is picking up has got to make the Bank of Canada a wee bit nervous about inflation reaching the 2% target next year.

Another noticeable thing is the continued surge in the Canadian population, thanks to immigration, has worsened the housing shortage. The supply of new housing, especially affordable housing, is inadequate for the rapidly growing population. Moreover, a recent report by the C.D. Howe Institute’s Benjamin Dachis suggests there are major governmental impediments to providing adequate housing.

The Institute recommends:

• Enable the non-political enforcement of municipal housing policies
• Reform the fees on new development
• ease restrictions on building up and out.

The employment rate—the share of the population aged 15 and older—held steady at 62.4% for the third consecutive month in April. This is particularly noteworthy given the population grew by more than a million people in 2022 and is slated to snowball this year, thanks to immigration.

However, there is a catch. All the job growth in April was in part-time positions, while full-time jobs decreased by 6,200. But even with this slight hiccup, the labour market is still going strong, which means the Bank of Canada will likely continue its wait-and-see approach, even as we all wonder when the first rate cut will happen.

The jobless rate held steady at a near-record low of 5.0%, unchanged since December 2022. This remained near the record low of 4.9% observed in June and July 2022. Compared with April 2022, the unemployment rate was down 0.3 percentage points in April 2023.

Of great concern to the Bank of Canada, average hourly wages rose by 5.2% on a yearly basis in a further sign of the labour market’s resilience, with wage growth now above the annual rate of inflation, which was 4.3% in March. It is not that wage inflation caused the surge in the Consumer Price Index last year, but continued vigorous wage hikes become impended in wage-price spiralling as higher costs give businesses cover to rate prices.

The BoC, despite this report, isn’t likely to budge from its current policy stance. As more and more immigrants enter the workforce, the traditional markers of a strong jobs report are evolving. Even though the unemployment rate remains steady at 5%, it may indicate that we’ve hit a new equilibrium point. That’s why this seemingly “surprising” report doesn’t hold the same weight as it would have in the past.

In addition, the BoC can quickly point out the narrowness of sector hiring and the trend of full-time employment declining while part-time jobs rise. After today’s release, the BoC’s decision to stay on the sidelines is a wise move. But it also means that the Bank will not be in a hurry to cut rates this year.