48 - Friday, June 12, 1992 - North Shore News

NEWS photo [dike Wakefield

CHALLENGING EMPLOYERS to clean up their act and hire students this summer are North
Vancouver Canada Employment Centre for Students placement officers Lisa MacCallum, Reg
Malebranche, Carrie Dawson and Rob Marcoux. The four recently pitched in to help clean up
Cates Park as part of an adverstising campaign. Employers wishing to hire students this sum-
mer can call the Canada Employment Centre for Students at 666-9192.

Gradual increase expected
in mortgage credit growth

RESIDENTIAL MOR-
TGAGE credit grew 1.7%
in nominal terms during the
fourth quarter of 1991,
down from the 2.1%
growth experienced in the
third quarter, according to
a report released recently by
Canada Mortgage and
Housing Corporation
(CMHC).

The April issue of CMHC’s
Mortgage Market Trends reports
that for 1991, mortgage credit
rose by 8% in comparison with
14.8% in 1990 and 18% per year
during the 1987-89 period.

The slower growth in mortgage
credit occurred despite a decline
of more than 2.5 percentage
points in mortgage rates during
last year and a2 25.7% surge in the

Artists to
lead tours
of gardens

ART AND garden enthusiasts will
have an opportunity to meet ar-
tists Lesley Bohm and Mary Far-
tis, and to view their work this
Sunday, June 14.

The artists will be in attendance
at the UBC Botanical Gardens,
6804 S.W. Marine Dr., in the
David Lam Reception Hall from
10:30 to 4 p.m.

David Tarrant, Judy Newton
and the Friends of the Garden will
lead two walks, at 10:30 a.m. and
at 1:30 p.m., in the UBC
Botanical Gardens. The Alpine
Garden and the Native Garden are
the featured subject of the tours.

The public is invited to view the
gardens, stay for tea and have a
chat with the artists.

Future arts and gardens tours
include ‘*Climbers and  Vines’’
with artist Rosemary Burnham on
June 28; ‘‘Unusual Trees and
Shrubs’? with Tori Wightman on
July 12; ‘*Perennials’’ with Pat
McGibbon on July 26; and
“Physick & Herb Garden’’ with
Susan Pritchard on August 9.

sale of existing houses. ‘‘But a
soft market for new housing
dampened the impact on mortgage
credit growth,’’ explained Gilles
Proulx, CMHC’s chief economist.

Preliminary data for the first
quarter of 1992 indicates mortgage
approvals picked up sharply at the
beginning of March in response to
the announcement of new
measures to assist homebuyers.
“Mortgage credit growth is ex-
pected to increase gradually over
the next few quarters because of a
slow economic recovery,’’ said
Proulx.

The report also features an
analysis cf how the last recession
and subsequent recovery period
compare to previous business cy-
cles and how housing and mor-
tgage markets fared during the
recession and the early phases of
the recovery.

@ Four quarters after the trough
of a recessionary period, the

economy has traditionally ex-
panded by between 4.5% and
6.5%. During the current recov-
ery, the advance will likely be less
than 2%,

@ While the housing recession of
1990-91 was severe by historical

standards, the recovery is under -_

way. Although it exceeds the pace
of the previous recoveries, starts
remain below pre-recession levels.
@ As a result of this strong hous-
ing recovery and the fact that
other sectors still have to recover,
housing investment has  con-
tributed to 67% of the increase in
GDP during the first three
quarters since the trough in the
first quarter of 1991.

@ Due to the modest pace of the
current economic recovery and a
housing recovery which is still not
complete, there is room for fur-
ther advances in housing and
mortgage markets.

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