Yes, you heard that correctly.
The word “bubble” was used in a discussion on a national news broadcast.
The CBC discusses the Canadian housing bubble with four economists and gets a fairly unanimous agreement: The Canadian housing market is overpriced and bubbly in many areas.
video embedded below:
Whoa! That is a suprising discussion to see in the mainstream media. I hit that Facebook share button on this post to share the news 😀
Labour’s perspective – that the real market danger is capping the flow of taxpayer money backing real estate – was good for a chuckle.
Thanks for grabbing and sharing specuskeptic! That is a remarkable discussion, I’m glad I saw it.
@fixie guy: What a douche that guy is. It’s like his heart is in the right place but his brain has no idea which side is up.
@Anonymous: Yeah, I tossed it up on Digg too. I suspect many people are going to be caught off guard by this shift.
“Whooocooodanode?”
@900kCrackHouse:
People here helped me out over the exact same issue a few months back. Here is where it explains it:
http://www.rto.gov.bc.ca/documents/Fact%20Sheets/RTB-125.pdf
REBGV stats release http://www.laurenandpaul.ca/REBGVStats.ubr
@paulb.:
“Home sale and listing activity has maintained a consistent pace on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver in recent months, which has helped create balanced conditions for the region’s housing market.”
These guys would do great at Yuk Yuk’s…
@Makaya: It’s a balanced market. Lowest sales in 10 years coupled with listings above the ten year average and inventory at levels not seen in years. Balanced as much as a tight rope walker between two skyscrapers with no net beneath him.
@Makaya.
Seriously, these guys could spin for the tobacco industry….
It was all awesome. I am now a fan of Preet Banerjee.
@Absinthe: Agreed! Watching his answers I was reminded of some of the more informed commenters here. Really great to see some sensible voices in the media!
Although I was somewhat interested in the idea that Australia is having a “soft landing”. It’s down 10% since June 2010, which is slower than the US or Ireland, but I think the jury is still out that there’s not a lot of downside left. I googled their prices, and that curve has not bottomed. Maybe there could be an uptick now if they’re doing a really LONG cycle with a head/shoulders formation.
@Absinthe: The US was having a ‘soft landing’ just like Australia and then it kept on going down. How anyone can call a ‘soft landing’ while a market is still dropping is beyond me.
@Anonymous: Totally agree. It was a weird thing for her to say, and I can’t find any reason for it in the actual charts. I mean, I know we bears have gotten caught calling the top when we only have a month or two of noise, so I have some sympathy – but the Australian market doesn’t even appear to have *noise* suggesting a bottom on the charts I found. It’s still, steadily, descending. In terms of general patterns it be at one of those bear trap places and we could see a shoulder, but I hope not. For Australia’s sake.
@Absinthe:
Will be interesting to see the impact of this week’s rate cut in Australia.
“April sales were the lowest total for the month in the region since 2001 and 16.9 per cent below the 10-year April sales average of 3,369.”
I’m surprised the REBGV wrote this bearish point in their release!
@paulb.: The benchmark prices seem very suspicious since they appear to be skyrocketing on the chart over the last few months when it’s obvious that’s not the case from annecdotal evidence, as well as avg and teranet prices. Guess which number involves REBGV manipulation?
Hi friends,
This property just sold and I was wondering if anyone with access could tell me the price it sold for.
MLS: V944683
Thanks in advance!
“Vancouver housing market slows to a crawl”
#7 – – –
I need to get me some of that stuff that the REBGV is smoking – – must be good. . .
The market is, indeed, slow! Looking at rentals and properties for sale, we have pretty much been looking at the same condos for 3 months now. Even a foreclosed townhome in poco, going for 250k, 20% below the “free market advertised at 300k” neighbor unit took several weeks to generate a bid which ended up coming in at 245k… all sellers we talked to were eager to accept 5-10% below asking price (similar to the potential landlords when I looked at rentals concurrently). It seems with all the new development and massive “investment segment” that there is an oversupply of housing already even though there are 1000s of new untis in the pipeline right now. All of central poco seems to be a construction site
@Absinthe: We know what Australia is going to do, it has already dropped rates by 0.5% in part because the economy is struggling and not least because housing sales are faltering and there are fewer refinance options available to keep domestic consumption from falling.
Australia either takes its medicine and forces lower prices or it guarantees underwriting while providing negative real rates. We all know where that road leads, and it’s not always higher prices.
Steve Keen’s recent analysis of Australian house prices:
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/05/01/australian-house-prices-down-10-from-peak/
