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Baby, we got a bubble!?

Almost 70% of all Canadians own a house or owing on one.
We have 20% of households living on after tax incomes of less then 1000CAD
Another 20% making less then 2500 CAD.
So, ladies and gentlemen, We have a situation when not just an "Average " all in, but quite a bit of those who are "Below Average" all in too.
BUT, still no bubble, cough... cough...
 
do not know if anybody posted this article yet. just in case no one
Canadian Housing: Booming Rebound, No Bubble

I dunno.. he claims prices are below last year:

However, prices are still 3.4% below year-ago levels.

This sounds like a bubble to me:
However, the expected unleashing of “pent-up supply†has lagged demand. In April, new listings contracted a record 22% y/y and, in September, new listings fell to a near five-year low (Chart 4). The lack of new listings is draining the inventory of homes available for sale (active listings), and pushing up the sales-tonew-listings ratio. The latter is a measure of real estate market tightness and a key driver of home prices. As such, some of the price spike is due to the tightening of supply conditions, in which case, prices are behaving as they should...

Relative to even incomes, prices are now hitting record highs (Chart 7). For example, in Q2, the average price was 10.6 times the level of labour income per capita (the ratio has trended up over time as the proportion of two-income households has risen). The current lofty level reflects the impact of two forces, record-low mortgage rates and recession-ravaged incomes. Both of these forces are poised to reverse course.
 
do not know if anybody posted this article yet. just in case no one
Canadian Housing: Booming Rebound, No Bubble
Canada’s resale market metrics are stoking
fears of a housing bubble, but the fears for the most part
are unfounded.
1) It’s not a bubble when a record sales rebound follows a massive sales collapse, owing to the vagaries of pent-up demand.

2)It’s not a bubble when prices accelerate because growing demand is butting up against shrinking supply.

3)It’s not a bubble simply because relative prices are at record highs.

4) Furthermore, given that mortgage credit growth is moderating, and new home and land prices remain subdued, the evidence on the ground argues against a housing bubble

Summary of the article - yes the housing price income ratio is at record high now pt 3 above, but you cannot simply take that to determine bubble by overlook the other 3 points.

Personally I am not buying into any of the analysis or conclusion (either side) - only the charts and stats can be possibly useful with a hope the source of the data is accountable
 
"David Rosenberg is chief strategist for Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. and a guest columnist for Report on Business"

Floating high on a delicate housing bubble

"Looking at Canadian home prices in relation to personal incomes or residential rent, what we have found is that housing values are anywhere between 15 per cent and 35 per cent above levels we would label as being consistent with the fundamentals. If being 15-per-cent to 35-per-cent overvalued isn't a bubble, then it's the next closest thing."

I guess it depends on where he's talking about. I wouldn't be surprised if Toronto dropped by 10-15% in a real estate downturn, and more in places like Vancouver.

However, I don't think such a drop is assured either.
 
Canadian housing prices are more expensive now than when the US prices peaked a couple of years ago. We have the same urban vs rural distributions, and indeed their per capita income is higher.

So if Canada's housing prices are not in a bubble now, does that mean the US prices were not in a bubble two years ago?

I'm not answering this question myself -I'm posing it to those who disagree that our prices are inflated beyond a price warranted by fundamentals and supported by a speculative belief in continuing asset price increases. (ie a bubble)
 
Canadian housing prices are more expensive now than when the US prices peaked a couple of years ago. We have the same urban vs rural distributions, and indeed their per capita income is higher.

So if Canada's housing prices are not in a bubble now, does that mean the US prices were not in a bubble two years ago?

I'm not answering this question myself -I'm posing it to those who disagree that our prices are inflated beyond a price warranted by fundamentals and supported by a speculative belief in continuing asset price increases. (ie a bubble)
In terms of location and rush hour commute times to downtown, lot size, home size, and safeness of the neighbourhood, NY still seems noticeably more expensive than Toronto does even now.

Miami seems less expensive though.
 
I don't think a 15-20% drop is unreasonable or unexpected. Stocks drop by more all the time. I know real estate isn't supposed to be as volatile, but that thinking was pretty much washed away in the sea of cheap money the global crisis has unleashed. The crisis which was created by cheap money fuelling real estate booms. Lesson: unlearnt.
 
In terms of location and rush hour commute times to downtown, lot size, home size, and safeness of the neighbourhood, NY still seems noticeably more expensive than Toronto does even now.

Miami seems less expensive though.

Outside of some hopeful people who coincidentally live in Toronto, there is no-one in the world who views New York and Toronto as comparable cities.
 
I'll be interviewing Shaun Hildenbrand from CMHC for Inside Toronto Real Estate on Wednesday December 23rd at 8:30p on Rogers TV. He'll discuss CMHC's analysis on the rental report and bubble scenarios with hard numbers. As of today's date, the findings cannot be reported to the general public.

Email insidetorealestate@rogerstv.com to get your questions in ahead of time.

I'd like to read that remax report, because it contradicts another report published by remax here

Rental Commentary
Rental numbers continue to track downwards. In October, 22 studios, 160 one bedroom units, and 88 two bedroom units were leased. This was down another 20% from the previous month. Rental numbers will not pick up again until January. Still, rates are holding firm. Everything is renting on average at 100% of list or ask price. Expect to pay $1300-1400 for a studio, one bedroom units now range from $1450 -1650 with parking and den. Parking will cost on average $100 per month. Two bedroom units range from almost $2,000 to $2400. If you are looking for a 3 bedroom unit - 6 were leased this month. Three of them were townhouses at an average price of $2500.
 
Outside of some hopeful people who coincidentally live in Toronto, there is no-one in the world who views New York and Toronto as comparable cities.
Who said New York and Toronto are comparable? I said New York is more expensive, which it is. I did not say Toronto should be the same price as New York, and it isn't.

Or are you suggesting New York is in a bubble right now too, and its cost premium over Toronto is not justified?
 
I think we are in the midst of a process that sees Toronto "finding its own new level", in terms of economic activity, urban development, real estate etc etc. Its an unpredictable process where we are establishing a "new normal", and we are trying to evaluate it based on our prior understanding of everything that has happened in the past. The fundamentals have changed, demographics have changed....its just a new paradigm.

We are all keen observers of this city, and we are all very opinionated and have something to say. But take stock, and think back twenty, ten years. This city is nothing like it used to be. The condo boom has brought people back to the city, amenities are improving, services are multiplying, its just a new reality for our city.

But back to the bubble issue...its being fueled by cheap money and low supply. The central bankers are not asleep! Things will normalize when interest rates start to move up, and sellers who were on hold decide to list their properties.
 
Who said New York and Toronto are comparable? I said New York is more expensive, which it is. I did not say Toronto should be the same price as New York, and it isn't.

Or are you suggesting New York is in a bubble right now too, and its cost premium over Toronto is not justified?


??

Eug, in answer to the question I posted you compared the prices of RE in New York and Toronto. If you don't think they are comparable, why did you compare them? And in your question in the quoted post above, you once again compared the two cities
 
??

Eug, in answer to the question I posted you compared the prices of RE in New York and Toronto. If you don't think they are comparable, why did you compare them? And in your question in the quoted post above, you once again compared the two cities
I thought it was obvious, but I'll explain it.

Toronto shouldn't be expected to be as expensive as New York, and guess what? It isn't. In that context, perhaps the pricing for Toronto (a large metropolitan and multicultural city, and financial centre of Canada) is in fact relatively appropriate, as places like New York are still much more expensive even after the US real estate crash.

That said, I think there is room for Toronto to drop, but I don't necessarily agree with the assumption by some that the Canadian real estate market's sky-is-falling.

Personally, I'm predicting a mild to modest drop in absolute dollar pricing in the coming years, which may be a little less modest after considering inflation, but I think it's a bit odd to consider this a sure thing, especially since people have been telling us since the early to mid 2000s that an imminent big crash was a sure thing in Canada.
 
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