"There is no bubble in the Canadian housing sector."
That’s what Jim Flaherty told reporters in Calgary yesterday. He says there is concern with the longer amortizations, and home purchases with little or no money down (hence the changes made last week to government-backed mortgages) but "Flaherty said he isn’t fretting about the health of Canada’s banks, even as subprime mortgage woes hammer financial institutions in the United States."
He also said that while the economy is going through "turbulent" times "our economy is strong."
I think that the real estate markets and banking systems in Canada are in much better shape then here in the US. Although here in Tucson Arizona I heard the same “everything is perfect” talk right before the real estate market started to show serious cracks. So only time will tell, however my personal belief is that things should be much stronger in Canada for the next 3 years then here in the US.
Economics are generalities. Specific brokers like you and me can be having banner years in bad times.
Aloha,
Keahi
Thank god there’s no bubble. Just a big correcton.
Everyone should know that money is just idea in people’s minds. And the fact that Canadian banking system is way healthier that that of the US means nothing if there is a collapse in the US banking system. That in turn would trigger the chain reaction of run on the Canadian banks that won’t survive it. So in my opinion Flaherty is doing the right thing of getting rid of the 40y/0down junk, however a little too late. Now it all depends on if the states manage to escape the crash, otherwise it will hit Canada’s banks too.
No bubble?
Right!
Look at Bob Truman’s stats for 1-15 july. SFH are down $5000…
The scenario of negative equity for new home owners is getting clearer each month.
Substitute bubble for massive correction… Prices in Alberta’s real estate can only go down, down, down.
Here’s proof:
“Inventory levels – which increased substantially in the last 12 months -
also led to a softening of Edmonton’s housing market during the second
quarter. The spike in the city’s housing inventory can be largely attributed
to new housing construction and market speculation, which, in recent years,
have both been rampant. The high inventory levels will dwindle into the second
half of the year, and as affordability improves, subsequent market conditions
will continue to normalize”.
Rampant speculation? Affordability improves?
can anyone say nose dive?
Here’s Winnipeg:
” In Winnipeg, limited new and resale housing inventory continued to
tighten the city’s real estate market, and will do so for the remainder of
2008. The limited supply of housing throughout the city had a dramatic impact
on average house prices, which, for all housing types surveyed during the
second quarter, experienced double-digit year-over-year increases. Inventory
levels were tightened throughout Winnipeg due to an influx of provincial
in-migration, during the second quarter.”
Good luck to the 10000+ home owners trying to flip their overpriced shoeboxes built on a 5 sq ft yard properties!
What do you expect a Finance Minister to say? The Canadian housing market is in bad shape?
Ya right!
It’s just like CREA, EREB, CREB, Royal LePage, etc ,etc, etc….
The worst you will ever hear from any of them is “we have a balanced market”. They have to sugar coat it any way they can. If the housing market is in the dumpster, their in the dumpster!
naysayers,
Who says the market is in the dumpster? Prices are stable, inventory is decreasing, the city is growing, the economy is good and the speculators have been out of the market for more than a year. The future looks brighter for 2009 than it did last year for 2008, when I knew there was a huge build of thousands of spec homes to come onto the market.
Hey Ned…I’m sure most everbody has been to Winnipeg, but apparently nobody is staying. Winnipegs population as prepared by the city of Winnipeg in 1991, 625,200 and in 2006 649,300…a gain of 24,100. Edmontons population in 1991 614,665 and 2006, 730,372 a gain of a little over 115,000. You keep on cheerleading though…everybody loves an underdog.
No bubble? OK, maybe not, but a price correction, for sure.
We almost made a 50K mistake which could have cost us about $300 a month over 25 years, had we needed a mortgage…
Nice big house in a well-kept SW neighborhood, 3 car garage.
08 Tax assessment:785K. Listed at 665K; down to 620K when we went to see it.
Needed some cosmetic upgrades, but nothing major we couldn’t have done ourselves.
We considered offering 580K, but then decided not to. The house now sold for 530K, at 68% of the “market value” assessment…
Tomorrow, we will be looking at a very similar house, in the same neighborhood, with an asking price of 545K. I bet they’ll settle for 500K….
Similar houses were selling for 800K+, in early 2007 !
***Comment deleted….personal attack***
Ned, I understand you are trying to justify moving to take a worse job in Manitoba. I understand. ***Comment edited…personal attack***Give me even one good reason Winnipeg will continue to gain on the momentum of other cities. Just one.
Anyone who thinks Winnipeg has even the tinest chance of growth gains over Alberta should not let the door hit them in the ass on the way out. Say hi to all those who moved to saskabush as they get ready to back to Edmonton. Average home price in saskatoon is now higher than Edmonton. I wonder how the net income is compared to Alberta, sorry, I mean how much lower than Alberta. ***Comment edited, personal attack*** The rest of us will just keep living in the wealthiest Province in Canada. Have a good week end.
P.S. aren’t the bombers 0-3? LOSERS!
C’mon car27, I can agree with you that ned is a tool but I still love the Bombers. And they’re 0-4 now…
Ok rather than editing and deleting all our comments, why don’t you just bann ned from this site? That way this ‘bash ned’ forum can go back to being a real estate forum. All this discussion about winnipeg is pretty damn irrelevant.