CMHC + Canadian Housing Market

A recent article in Maclean's had an interview with Evan Siddall who is the CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

 

While it was very interesting, I feel it is much too narrow in its perspective. No acknowledgement of the history of homes in Canada. It solely looks at mortgages, banking and how money flow works in an economy.

Mortgages and Mortgage Insurance were only PART of what CMHC delivered and administered.

However, as he points out in one sentence, then never returns to the issue -- postwar Canada's housing was in poor shape.  Furthermore, the apparatus for delivering housing for a growing 1950s economy did not exist in Canada at that time. Both Canada and major Municipalities sought out Professionals from Britain to shore up the need for the processing the supply of homes for the booming demand.

CMHC built it all up,  dollars and bricks -- the non-mortgage side of housing is what made us significant... and Pierre Elliot Trudeau's  belief that Housing was important as the engine of economic growth and change  within (and between,) the Provinces; therefore, outside the Constitution's clauses that said housing & planning were Provincial jurisdictions. Economic Growth is a federal responsibility in the Constitution. (Siddall acknowledges that housing is an engine of growth but only views it from the monetary side. Because he is a money man by "trade".)

The planning and infrastructure and social housing aspects of CMHC were huge in the 70s up to late 90s as the impact of the Baby Boomers moved through society.

 

Even now, the social aspects of housing (i.e. subsidies for the poor) gets ignored. Everyone comments on the need for assistance --but nobody provides it; save for the government.

Look up the earlier Maclean's article on CMHC, written in 2011. All the doom and gloom never happened,  because it was about bankers and their worries... the Banking sector which Canada has managed better than the United States. ONE PERCENTERS do not buy the average house -- it is a different market and requires different controls.

Do not blame CMHC for Mortgage-backed securities -- those happened because of changes the IMF made that permitted banks to securitize mortgages (MBS,) and remove the liability from the books;  Lending Institutions pressured the Government to allow MBS. The availability of these "extra" mortgage funds was supposed to facilitate growth. Of course, when MBS proved popular,  the sharks dove into the tank and created havoc with the "extra" dollars.

Canada is beautiful and its cities are great BECAUSE of everything CMHC did from 1947 right up to early C21st. It is too simplistic to look at the housing market in Vancouver or Toronto and think it was caused by CMHC and its insured mortgages.