James Flaherty on the housing market
Jesse posted a letter in the forum that he sent To his MP and James Flaherty supporting changes to government support of Canadian housing markets. Evidently a few others wrote in as well, because Jesse posted Flaherties response, which was duplicated in a PDF we received from another reader. You can read the full response in the forum post, but here are a few key sections we thought were interesting:
…we are encouraging responsible home ownership through measures to help first-time home buyers.
Does assisting someone to buy something encourage responsibility?
Unlike the citizens of other countries, such as the United States, Canadians did not face mass foreclosures on their homes, and our banks did not require taxpayer bailouts due to turmoil in the housing market.
Didn’t the taxpayer backed CMHC pump un unprecedented amount of money into Canadian mortgages?
Third, we withdrew government insurance backing on home equity lines of credit (HELOCSs). Taxpayers should no bear any risk associated with such consumer credit products. These risks should be managed by the financial institutions that offer these products.
Agreed! So why were helocs ever government insured?
Those were just a few points that jumped out to me, anyone else spot anything remarkable in that message that you agree or disagree with?
“He sold his place in Richmond for 300K over assessed value. He’s now renting from a young guy who can’t afford the mortgage on the place. And the landlord’s mom is a realtor.” | Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive Says:
May 20th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
[...] at vancouvercondo.info May 17th, 2011 at 8:54 am – “I overheard a guy yesterday on his phone. He sold his place in Richmond for 300K [...]
“A good friend of mine, a school teacher, had his dad pass away recently and left him his Van Westside house, currently estimated to be worth $2.5M. He is planning to sell, move somewhere else, invest the money and retire.” | Vancouver Real Es Says:
May 19th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
[...] at vancouvercondo.info May 17th, 2011 at 4:41 pm – “A good friend of mine had his dad pass away recently and left him his, currently [...]
“A good friend of mine, a school teacher, had his dad pass away recently and left him his Van Westside house, currently estimated to be worth $2.5M. He is planning to sell, move somewhere else, invest the money and retire.” | Vancouver Real Es Says:
May 19th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
[...] at vancouvercondo.info May 17th, 2011 at 4:41 pm – “A good friend of mine had his dad pass away recently and left him his, currently [...]
“A good friend of mine, a school teacher, had his dad pass away recently and left him his, currently estimated to be worth, $2.5M Van West house. He is planning to sell, move somewhere else, invest the money and retire.” | Vancouver Real Estat Says:
May 19th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
[...] at vancouvercondo.info May 17th, 2011 at 4:41 pm – “A good friend of mine had his dad pass away recently and left him his, currently [...]