Comments on: Canada Housing bubble in the Wall Street Journal.

By: Homdino

Homdino — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:15:49 +0000

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By: al

al — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:14:45 +0000

More fear of the bubble is better since it helps to avoid the bubble. Based on the price/rent ratio, the prices in vancouver currently with say a normal interst rate of 4% are overvalued but not terribly overvalued (I would say they are fairly valued for 3.6 to 3.7% interest rate range). However, if the low interest rate environment persists more and more people are tempted by this false sense of affordability to buy homes with even higher prices. Fortunately, the new laws coming in regarding minimum down payments and 30y max amortization will help to contain that. Also, we'll probabely see much more fragmanted market prices from location to location and from one price range to another price range. For example, I would say a decent 2bd condo in a good locaton of downtown under 600K is a much safer bet than very high end of the market (because of price) and also than the very low end of the market where usually locations are not attractive and easily substitutable.

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By: Bull Hubris?… Or Appropriate Owner Confidence?: “Fundamentals don’t apply to Vancouver. Real estate has detached itself from economic reality long ago. It has reached escape velocity to break away from economic gravity. It is a beautiful case study.

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:09:36 +0000

[...] Eyes of the World at vancouvercondo.info 9 Feb 2010 11:58 am – “Hahaha..I love checking in here [vancouvercondo.info] and seeing the same old “arguments” being rehashed over and over and over again… Vancouver is the best place on earth and the Olympics will show that to the world. People will walk around, notice the beauty and buy here.” [...]

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By: Buy or not buy

Buy or not buy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:20:50 +0000

Where is the bubble? I want to buy a home so please come bubble!!!

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By: chip

chip — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:10:51 +0000

"According to Google Trends, the term “price bubble” is most searched for in Vancouver, followed by Singapore " And I split my time between these two countries. You guys think you've got it bad with one bubble. I have two to contend with.

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By: Drachen

Drachen — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:59:46 +0000

@Dave: "The 9.3 ratio is meaningless. The average person in the GVRD does not purchase a SFH in Vancouver." The 9.3 number does not represent SFH, that number would be more like a 17 or an 18. 10 seconds with a calculator is all it takes to figure that one out. 9.3 is MEDIAN HOUSING you dip.

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By: patriotzed

patriotzed — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:57:07 +0000

@Not much of a name:

I’m sure there are many FTB out there purchasing $375k condos with $40k a year salaries.

Oh I'm sure there are too, and I'm equally sure they will disappear in short order when interest rates go up or their account with the Bank of Mom and Dad is overdrawn.

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By: logic

logic — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:27:49 +0000

also, Arnold is one of Gordo's buddies. This is BC, land of nepotism, after all.

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By: Milton

Milton — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:21:54 +0000

@Dave: There are still plenty of affordable options in the Lower Mainland. ++++++++ If you truly believe that, then calling you a retard would be an insult handicapped people. Seriously, are you drunk, or on crack, or what. No sane person, not even a troll would state something so ridiculous. Oh wait, you're joking. Ok I get it. Dumb me.

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By: domus

domus — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:24:56 +0000

@realpaul: 56 realpaul, I think there is nothing surprising in the lobby of real estate agents trying to preserve their unfair market power in order to extract surplus from consumers. I am a bit more surprised to see that it took so long for the government of Canada to figure out that something needed to be done! The CREA virtual monopoly and the CHMC are the 2 largest market distortions in Canada: the are so large that the market mechanism can no longer work well. I believe the CHMC is the largest distortion, but removing the forced 'CREA tax' would already go a long way towards a consumers' oriented housing market. Abolish the CHMC! Liberalize the MLS!

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