"The lack of publicly available information on it is mind-boggling," says CIBC bank economist Benjamin Tal about mortgage information in Canada.
Photo Credit: Darren Calabrese/CP

Bank economist says we’re ‘Flying Blind’ because of lack of mortgage data

What was the dollar value of new mortgages originated in Canada in the last quarter? What is the share of non-conforming loans in the Canadian landscape? Bank economist Benjamin Tal says we simply don’t know.

In his analysis titled “Flying Blind” posted Thursday (April 3) the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) economist writes: “The gap between the importance of the real-estate market to the economy and the lack of publicly available information on it is mind-boggling.”

“This situation is unhealthy. Due to competitive reasons lenders cannot reveal all the information they sit on, while other players are forced to use their limited information to make decisions.”

Tal suggests that “With fresh players steering our policy ship, the new Finance Minister, the new Governor of the Bank of Canada and the new head of CMHC have an opportunity to chart a course that reduce any potential risk of a real estate bubble by making data availability a top priority.”

More information:
CIBC In Focus/Benjamin Tal – Flying Blind (pdf) – here

twitter.com/wojtekgwiazda

Categories: Economy, Politics
Tags: ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.