Big bank answers tough mortgage and housing-related questions during its quarterly conference call against a backdrop of growing mortgage and real estate industry worries
.jpg)
Big bank answers tough mortgage and housing-related questions during its quarterly conference call against a backdrop of growing mortgage and real estate industry worries.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first question asked during the Bank of Montreal’s quarterly earnings conference call was about the state of the housing market.
For its part, the big bank remains confident.
“We haven’t seen any pattern in any single sector to cause us … to worry about this. I say the same thing about the Canadian housing market,” BMO said during the conference call. “We stress all of our portfolios and then we see how they perform against any stress.”
According to the bank, there is no reason to stress about any sector, including housing.
It noted no deterioration in Canada’s residential mortgage market in its announcement.
However, it does foresee some cooling in Toronto’s hot housing market as a result of last month’s housing plan.
“It’s difficult to judge right now what the impact of the various changes will be. Much like we experienced in Vancouver … we’re starting to see signs of that in Toronto,” BMO said during the call, “You’ll have seen the news that sales are down … prices are growing at a rate slower than what they were. Early indicators are that we’ll see some softening. From my perspective, that’s good.”
It’s unsurprising the bank views a cooling off of Toronto’s market positively.
Earlier this year it declared that market an outright bubble.
“Let’s drop the pretence. The Toronto housing market — and the many cities surrounding it — are in a housing bubble,” BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter wrote in a note to clients in February.
BMO was the first of the big banks to announce its Q2 performance Wednesday.
It grew its second-quarter net income by 28%, reported a net income of $1.25 billion, and $5.74 billion in quarterly revenue.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first question asked during the Bank of Montreal’s quarterly earnings conference call was about the state of the housing market.
For its part, the big bank remains confident.
“We haven’t seen any pattern in any single sector to cause us … to worry about this. I say the same thing about the Canadian housing market,” BMO said during the conference call. “We stress all of our portfolios and then we see how they perform against any stress.”
According to the bank, there is no reason to stress about any sector, including housing.
It noted no deterioration in Canada’s residential mortgage market in its announcement.
However, it does foresee some cooling in Toronto’s hot housing market as a result of last month’s housing plan.
“It’s difficult to judge right now what the impact of the various changes will be. Much like we experienced in Vancouver … we’re starting to see signs of that in Toronto,” BMO said during the call, “You’ll have seen the news that sales are down … prices are growing at a rate slower than what they were. Early indicators are that we’ll see some softening. From my perspective, that’s good.”
It’s unsurprising the bank views a cooling off of Toronto’s market positively.
Earlier this year it declared that market an outright bubble.
“Let’s drop the pretence. The Toronto housing market — and the many cities surrounding it — are in a housing bubble,” BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter wrote in a note to clients in February.
BMO was the first of the big banks to announce its Q2 performance Wednesday.
It grew its second-quarter net income by 28%, reported a net income of $1.25 billion, and $5.74 billion in quarterly revenue.
