Paulb and paintedturtle pointed out this article in the Globe and Mail – Housing Affordability: the great quandry. Why there’s time to wait for the right home at the right price.
The one city to worry about if you’re a homeowner is Vancouver, where normal mortgage rates would have resulted in the typical household spending 78 per cent of its income to carry a bungalow, just shy of the peak level.
History shows that it’s impossible to accurately predict short-term movements of house prices – markets regularly overshoot rational levels both on the way up and the way down. What we can say is that based on current affordability, if house prices do continue to escalate, at some point they’re almost certain to correct back down.
That means there’s no rush to buy and time to wait for the right home at the right price – and that for the next while at least home buyers should evaluate houses as places to live rather than on their potential for appreciation.
Ok. I see what’s going on here. The Globe and Mail has worked themselves into a jealous rage because our properties are worth so much and are trying to talk down our market. It won’t work guys. We know better than that, we evaluate property purchases based on how much a month they cost with record low interest rates and pencil in 12% increase in prices each year. Everybody knows prices never drop in Vancouver.
