Housing market in fine shape, RBC’s Nixon says

Video: RBC’s Gord Nixon spoke to Global News on corporate social responsibility, and that of banks in particular five years after the U.S. financial crisis, as well as what the U.S. federal government shutdown and looming debt ceiling deadline means for the economy.

Anxious home owners and prospective buyers worried about rising interest rates and faltering condo prices shouldn’t get too worked up, says the head of the country’s largest bank.

Interest rates will remain low for some time, while the Canadian real estate market, while frothy in pockets, is in good shape, Gord Nixon, president and chief executive of Royal Bank of Canada said Thursday.

“As I remind people from time to time, don’t look at Vancouver condos as a proxy for Canada,” Nixon said in an interview. “This is a big country, and when you’re talking about single family homes in Saint John or St. John’s or Regina or even Toronto, it’s a very different market than what the media tends to speculate on.”

As for interest rates, which have moved higher over the summer, a further spike isn’t likely in the cards amid a still-sluggish economic outlook for Canada and the United States, he said.

“I think interest rates are going to remain quite low for an extended period of time,” he said. “As long as we’re in this slow growth, low inflation environment I think we’re going to have low interest rates. I think they’re with us for awhile.”

Mr. Nixon made the comments as Royal Bank of Canada, the biggest bank in the country, announced Thursday a five-year pledge to contribute a total of $100 million to youth initiatives across the country.

The aim: to improve the lives of one million young Canadians over that time span, through new funds earmarked for after-school programs and charitable grants to organizations made through the bank’s RBC Children’s Mental Health Project.

The pledge is the biggest charitable drive in the history of RBC.

“We felt we could up our game in terms of the success and impact we have on children and children issues across the country,” Nixon said.