Rob Palm | Whistler, Squamish & Pemberton Real Estate Expert

between a rate cut and a hard place

Posted on Mar 19, 2025

After delivering three consecutive rate cuts in the final quarter of 2024—a period marked by optimism about inflation's downward trajectory—the Federal Reserve has opened 2025 on a decidedly different note with back-to-back pauses. At the start of the cutting cycle, few market observers expected such an early and significant slowdown in rate reduct...

taxation vacation impacts inflation

Posted on Mar 18, 2025

Today’s release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from Statistics Canada brought a notable departure from recent price trends. The annual rate of inflation increased in February, to 2.6%, its highest level since June 2024, after sitting below the Bank’s target rate of 2.0% for three consecutive months. While some of the increase can be attributed...

migration in motion: bc's biggest population trends in 2024

Posted on Mar 14, 2025

To fully understand residential real estate, one must understand people and populations—how they’re aging, how they’re growing, how they’re moving, and how needs and preferences are changing along the way. Fortunately, every year Statistics Canada releases sub-provincial population estimates that provide insight on how our cities and towns are evol...

trade tiff spurs Bank's Tiff into action

Posted on Mar 12, 2025

This morning, the Bank of Canada cut its trend-setting policy interest rate by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 2.75%, its lowest level since August 2022.

Prior to the United States’ imposition of tariffs on a range of Canadian exports (and Canada’s application of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of US exports coming north—with more to...

labour market stability...for now

Posted on Mar 07, 2025

Canada’s labour market has spent the past few years slowly deteriorating in the face of high interest rates that were in response to high inflation. While this has been reflected in a number of labour market metrics, it was most obvious in the unemployment rate, which rose from an all-time low of 4.8% in July 2022 to a peak of 6.9% last November. M...

the public (re-)privatization of fannie and freddie

Posted on Mar 07, 2025

If you've been following financial news lately, you've probably heard the growing conversation about Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association, or FNMA) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corportion, or FHLMC). These industry giants currently guarantee over 70% of all US mortgages and make homeownership possible for million...

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