There’s an article in today’s Vancouver Sun about the average cost of carrying a mortgage in Vancouver – It currently costs an average of $2,322 per month for a mortgage on an average house in greater Vancouver, and that’s IF you put 25% down. The subtitle on this article is ‘Vancouver area close to levels last reached before previous downturns.’
There’s a graph attached to the article that shows the two previous market peaks they compare today’s prices to and its kind of scary, both peak years had a huge drop after the peak.
“We haven’t been where we are today since 1994 and 1989 which were both peak years in their respective cycles,” Cameron Muir, senior market analyst with CMHC, said in an interview.
The study supports other surveys that suggest real estate prices will level off as homes become less affordable, although Muir doesn’t expect that to happen before next year.
Although the CMHC doesn’t seem to think prices will drop like they did after the two years today’s prices are compared to, they do think prices will level off, which is a soft way of saying they will stop increasing at the rate they have in the last couple of years. This is completely unacceptable! If I want an investment that will stay flat I’ll bury canning jars full of Canadian Tire money in my backyard. I suggest we boycott the CMHC until they can GUARANTEE that prices will continue to increase by 20% per year to infinity.
