At the recent Victoria Real Estate Board's award night, Karl Leong of the Preferred Homes Team was award a special recognition for his gold level (top 10%) performance for at least 10 of the last 13 years.  Congratulations from all of us on the team to Karl for his outstanding, long term dedication to his clients!

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CBC NEWS - Canada's inflation rate dropped sharply in March, as the pace of increase in food and gasoline prices slowed significantly.

The consumer price index dropped to 1.9 per cent in March from 2.6 per cent in February, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The large drop was even more than the two per cent decline that economists had been expecting.

It's the first time in 18 months that the rate has been below the two per cent threshold. That's the level the Bank of Canada targets in making its decisions on interest rates.

Of the eight indices that the agency tracks for inflation, six posted slower year-over-year gains, including food and energy, which made up the lion's share of the overall slowdown.

Food prices rose 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to March, following a 4.1 per cent increase the previous month. As well, the cost of energy advanced 5.1 per cent in the 12 months to March, after rising 7.2 per cent in February.

The so-called core rate, which strips out volatile changes in food and energy prices, was at 1.9 per cent during the month, a drop from 2.3 per cent.

Regionally, not a single province saw inflation creep higher during the month.

Original Article:

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What a great week at The Summit at Thetis.  It's so nice to see not only the traffic to our sales centre, but that so many families are choosing the Summit as their new home.  

With four new accepted offers this week, you are going to see a lot of construction crews getting underway in the coming weeks.  

If you haven't discoved yet that The Summit at Thetis offers incredible value & quality, centrally located right by Thetis Lake, then you really need to visit our show home this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, from 1-4pm.  We would love to help you make this your new neighbourhood.

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The Bank of Canada kept its trend-setting Bank Rate at 1.25 per cent on April 17^th, 2012. While this was the 13^th consecutive policy meeting in which borrowing costs have been left unchanged, it was the first time since last September that a policy announcement has included a reference to the possibility of a rate hike.

The Bank reiterated a number of the more positive developments it first mentioned in the March 8^th announcement. These include a stronger profile for U.S. economic growth, as well as reduced risk emanating from Europe, which the Bank now expects will “emerge slowly from recession in the second half of 2012.”

The Bank also noted that “improved global economic prospects, supply disruptions and geopolitical risks,” are keeping oil prices up which if sustained could prove a risk to the improvement in economic momentum.

In Canada the Bank again declared the biggest risk to be high household debt, adding that it expects households will continue to add to their debt burden as “private domestic demand will account for almost all of Canada’s economic growth over the projection horizon.”

That said, with economic momentum in Canada remaining firmer than the Bank had expected back in January, the forecast for growth this year has been lifted. The Bank now expects the economy will grow at 2.4 per cent this year, up from the 2.0 per cent forecast in January.

At the same time, the Bank lowered its forecast for 2013 to 2.4 per cent from 2.8 per cent, and also extended its forecast out to 2014 with a prediction of 2.2 per cent growth.

The Bank also noted that the amount of slack in the economy had decreased. As such, the Bank now expects the economy will return to full capacity “in the first half of 2013,” which while intentionally vague is still sooner than the previous prediction for a return to full capacity by the third quarter of next year.

The Bank ended the announcement by hinting, for the first time since last September, that it may have to raise rates, stating “In light of the reduced slack in the economy and firmer underlying inflation, some modest withdrawal of the present considerable monetary policy stimulus may become appropriate, consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target over the medium term. The timing and degree of any such withdrawal will be weighed carefully against domestic and global economic developments.”

Further clarification as to when these “modest” rate hikes may be expected will no doubt be the subject of the various speeches and remarks given by the Governor and his deputies between now and the next announcement on June 5^th, 2012.

As of April 17^th 2012, the advertised five-year lending rate stood at 5.44 per cent. This is up 0.2 percentage points from 5.24 per cent on March 8^th, when the Bank made its previous policy interest rate announcement.

(CREA 04/17/2012)(h)(r)(s)