BOC Deputy Governor: No Canadian Bubble.
Paul Jenkins, the senior Deputy Governor at the Bank of Canada has joined Flaherty and Carney in declaring that there is no Canadian housing bubble. So many officials seem so desperate to make comments about this subject right now, but why are they so desperate to reassure us? Of course there is no Canadian housing bubble, just look at house prices in Windsor. What I’d really like to hear them say is that there is no housing bubble in Vancouver, then we could all relax.
The federal government said last week it will bring in new mortgage rules to cool the housing sector and prevent home buyers, tempted by record low interest rates, from overextending themselves.
At the same time, it said there was no housing bubble, a point echoed on Monday by Jenkins, who was speaking at a panel discussion at the Government of Canada and Financial Times Global Business Leaders Day in Vancouver, where the housing market is especially hot.
“At the moment, we are certainly seeing a certain amount of the recovery in the Canadian economy coming from the housing sector” he said.
“I would certainly not say we are looking at a housing bubble,” he added.
Article in the Vancouver Sun.
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March 6th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 24th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
@Chilled: just curious, where’s you’re interest coming from currently?
February 24th, 2010 at 11:14 am
@patriotz:
“What is the return to society at large when somebody wins a gold medal?”
Youth become inspired and hit the gym instead of the streets or vegging on video games and TV = lowered crime rate, less strain on the healthcare system and a healthier society. This also has a cumulative effect, if one person in a poor neighbourhood has even a moderate level of success as an athlete they usually return and encourage more youth to get involved.
“Wayne Gretzky’s career was not funded by the taxpayer, why should any other athlete’s be?”
Because he chose a sport that happens to pay well. Other athletes deserve funding for the same reason the arts deserve funding, it is a part of our society and our expression and it benefits us all whether you see the direct links from a to b to c or not.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Canada’s medal count does not seem to impact upon our general health, incomes or even our psychological state over the long term. But, we have to own the podium or else.
Kind of reminds me of Napolean’s saying that all you need to create a bunch of heroes is a couple of yards of ribbon.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:46 am
@mino3:
Right, and look at the physical fitness and general health today of the population of the US and the former Soviet republics.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:22 am
patriotz, it’s all just a continuation of the US/Soviet cold war propaganda. Olympic medals were great for national pride. I’m sure the other countries got jealous and wanted medals too. The perceived benefit to society at large is “we are awesome”.
February 24th, 2010 at 4:59 am
@rp:
Why?
What is the return to society at large when somebody wins a gold medal? Why should my tax dollars pay to help somebody become a celebrity? Wayne Gretzky’s career was not funded by the taxpayer, why should any other athlete’s be?
Tax money should be spent on improving the fitness of the general population – especially children – which is in abominable shape. Let the elite athletes get their money from rich sponsors, or by charging people to watch them.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Canada’s athletes deserve any funding they get. But how anyone thought a bunch of bureaucrats could help us win us more Olympic medals is beyond me. How much did they get? We should send them down the luge track.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Didn’t Allan Greenspan also deny a bubble in the US until the day he retired with a nice fat pension? Didn’t he change his tune the day later? Isn’t this similar to the RCMP public complaints official here who kept denying that anything was wrong until the day after he retired with a big fat pension. I’m seeing pattern forming here. These losers all tow the party line until they are safely pensioned off and only then does the truth come out. Does anyone remember that noisy fucker John Crosbie about the cod disaster back in Newfie. He was against any suggestion of mismangement by the government until………a few days after he retired with a nice fat pension he says ….mistakes were made for the sake of political expediancy.
This country is short on truth telling and chock full of liars !!!!!!!
Did anyone notive the pro Own the Podium campaign the past two days? They have gone on the offensive and lined up all the athelets and even flew in Buzz Aldrin to speak on thier behalf. Buz you remember is the famous #2 man on the moon. Being #2 is not bad he says, this is the line that the OTP slugs are trying to push so as to get the Canadians to stop focusing on the bullshit they were slung prior to the games.
And who is slinging it…why the whores in the media as usual, disguising ‘interviews as ‘infomercials ‘ paid for by guess who? Yup, VANOC. This town needs more Americans. Cause Americans speak up when someone tries to fuck them over. Thes esmall town yokels are too easily led. Maybe its the cancerous tumours in the seafood?
February 24th, 2010 at 12:05 am
13
X VHB Says:
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:26 am
Whether I own or rent affects my life zero–except that renting costs me 2 large a month less. Thanks, landlord!
++++++++++++++++++++++
And we can be the cause of those extra special strata meetings instead of the expected answer!!!! LOL
February 24th, 2010 at 12:02 am
#63 @domus: You need to get up to speed. All of this real estate “investment” is backed by the government. It’s the only thing we do! They’re happy to lend me $750k for a primary residence, but they’ll lend me up to $1 million dollars (cue Austin Powers) to “invest” in rental properties.
http://americacanada.blogspot......nment.html
I wonder if they’ll lend me $1 million to play the stock market too? Seriously, you need to get on the gravy train. Nobody needs to work anymore, working is for suckers. We’ll just flip houses all day long on government credit that rises exponentially to make everything pay off. You can’t lose! Until a currency crisis that is. But then those idiots who were working and saving and sacrificing will be hit even harder.
Maybe it will be like the US where if you can’t pay the mortgage you just get to stay in the house for free for YEARS! After all, your good buddy the government isn’t going to kick you out. That would hurt the housing market, which, I remind you, is the only thing we do.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:00 am
No bubble, who cares. Lets wait until a 250 sq ft condo/closet in skid row sells for a million bucks! We can than collectively declare a crescendo, a utophia. In the interim, I’ll allow my interest income to pay my rent, be debt free, grow my savings and remain amused by the stressed out people surrounding me. As long as I can continue to type faster than I talk, happily drive in the right hand lane, continue to open doors for others, my life remains on track.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:37 pm
“Does any sane person ‘dream’ of OWNING a condo?”
I don’t know why you say thanks to landlord at the end oh maybe he is a sane person with guts to provide you shelter on single installment,Nope?
One thing to remember and that is owning or renting is an choice,If you are happy renting that’s what make your landlord happy.
Happy ending.
Keep the spirit going folks lots of medals to come.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Now, this is crazy. Just browsing around for the implementation of the new mortgage rules and this came out.
Genworth involved in mortgage rule changes
http://www.mortgagebrokernews......nges/43566
“…Genworth Financial Canada has said the new rules will also apply to mortgages it insures…Vukanovich went on to say that because Genworth Financial Canada is backed by the government, the company is affected by the new rules.”
Is this true?? Genworth Canada Ifinancial arm of General Electric, if i am not mistaken) is backed by Canadian taxpayers? Please correct me, I really really want to be wrong about this. I hoep I am wrong.
A back of the envelope calculation shows that potential liabilities for CMHC are comparable with those of healthcare for babyboomers. I hope there are no more hidden liabilities with Genworth.
And why the hell would the Canadian Government provide implicit backing for Genworth private insurance business? Is Genworth sharing profits? Or providing a socially valuable service?
Is RE investing now considered a beneficial activity for our society? Why would we subsidize that? Please someone tell me that I am not getting this right.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:28 pm
MSM chatter about the effects of the mortgage tightening.
Mortgage changes to tighten approvals
http://www.nationalpost.com/ne.....id=2590149
“…For most consumers, the changes are unlikely to make it more difficult to get a mortgage, but it could reduce the size of that mortgage…”
Poor souls. Now they won’t be able to buy that 850k condo on their 75k salary. Life is so unfair.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
@rp:
Where’s Bin Laden when you need him?
He’s not needed anymore. The fake US Treasuries the Primary Dealer banks forged and all the documents related to them burned down with the Trade Center buildings.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Remember Asians don’t like to rent out investments b/c in China is still considered new if it hasn’t been lived in whether it’s 1,2,3,4… years old.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
The BoC spokespeople are being disengenuous at best and dishonest at worst. The word “bubble” is so subjective they can always claim there’s no bubble. They should stick to the data and leave the lies to the experts.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
@scoop:
Find all those in audio-bite format and you’ve just written the winning advertisement for the Liberals next campaign.
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 pm
@scoop:
spot on, Scoop! Thanks a lot.
…and these guy are the fiscal conservatives! What a joke.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Thank you Mr. Scoop for those tantalizing excerpts from the mouth of Minister Flaherty. Members of the viewing public what do these comments tell us?
In my opinion, Mr. Flaherty is like a woman wearing a spandex lululemon outfit because its trendy but ignores the fact that she has the rear the size of a clidesdale. Spandex is not a right it is earned. Somethings just speak for themselves.
Flaherty is full of bullshit, bullshit and more horseshit.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Nice chronology, Scoop.
Now all we need to do is replace the word DEFICIT with the word BUBBLE and we’re all set to see into the future.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Why I get excited when Flaherty says there is no bubble:
Oct 9 2008 “We will not run a deficit.”
Nov 27 2008 The federal government will post a surplus each year over the next five years [Flaherty said] although he cautioned that a volatile economic situation and rapidly declining commodity prices mean “a deficit cannot be ruled out.”
Dec 17, 2008 “No, there will be a deficit… It’s quite clear, on the basis of the forecast and the continuing decline in the forecasts, that there will be a deficit, even after we take the measures that we outlined in the fall economic statement.”
Jan 9 2009 “Canada has certain needs and Canadians have certain needs in this extraordinary time of global recession. To fulfill those needs, we are going to have to run a substantial deficit, which we will do”
May 25, 2009 “I expect we will have a larger deficit than anticipated in the federal budget…the deficit will be substantially more.”
May 26, 2009 “It’s necessary in the short term to run a large deficit — relatively large — to make sure that Canada gets through this [recession]. This will be a short-term deficit and we’ll be able to manage it.”
May 28, 2009 “This is not the worst deficit in Canada’s history but this is the worst recession since the Second World War.”
January 15, 2010 “I don’t agree with [Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page] that there is a structural deficit. He’s speculating,”
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Of course there’s no Canadian Housing Bubble. There’s only a Toronto Bubble, Calgary Bubble, Victoria Bubble, Fraser Valley Bubble. And, lest we forget, a Vancouver Bubble.
As “they” like to say, Real Estate is local.
Canadian isn’t a bubble. It’s a bubble bath.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:02 pm
There’s no fighting the fundamentals
http://www.calculatedriskblog......ratio.html
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
That’s so “2005″…..RTP
Bernanke: There’s No Housing Bubble to Go Bust