Aw shucks RBC it’s nice to see one of them economist fellas cut through all of the normal self serving rhetoric and get a genuinely impartial take on the real estate market and it’s prospects.

Who cares about Toronto?

Oh yeah nutslaps! Condo market will flatten awaiting next leg up. Gold and Vancouver land to the moon in a near hyperinflationary environment. Wait two years. High end market first in for lunch break!

RBC please tell us who is buying? Building the condos seems to be easy now but how of them are going to sell.
RBC-s vision is very limited.

Ah yes, the “two-tiered market”. They should say that falling prices will be “contained”.

Headline in the [i]More Related to this Story[/i] section in the article:

“Cautious buyers send Toronto condo sales plunging”

But there’s no bubble. Everything’s just fine, don’t worry…

How Orwellian.

“RBC: No Toronto Condo Bubble”

There you go. This proof that there is a bubble.

“RBC: No Toronto Condo Bubble”

There you go. This proves that there is a bubble.

@Pies: “The numbers are up and the sales are down, but the mentality of the people has not yet changed”

We know the mentality of people hasn’t changed too much but the availability of mortgages has. That is all that matters at this point. The mentality part will come later. There is nothing an advertising campaign will do. Be patient.

I LOVE the “two tiered” market sentiment. How many of those youngsters buying a condo to live in want that lifestyle for decades? Not too many. As soon as they find a mate and plan kids, it’s all about the yard and the school district, but it’s a condo to start to get on the “property ladder.” If they lose $50k in equity, they will have difficulty reaching the next rung up. There goes demand.

“[Toronto] Land within a couple hours travel in peak periods was developed decades ago.”

Don’t you believe it. They’re still paving over farmers’ fields north of Highway 5 in Burlington and Oakville, putting up McMansions in Vaughan, Stoufville and Uxbridge. Brampton, Markham, Pickering… the list goes on and on.

To paraphrase “Yes, Minister”

“The first rule of real estate prognostication: never believe anything until it’s been officially denied by a bank economist or a real estate lobby group.”

In the States:

“Nationwide, home values rose 0.2% year-over-year to a median $149,300 during the second quarter, the first annual increase since 2007, real estate listing site Zillow reported. Prices were up 2.1% from the first quarter.”

http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/real_estate/home-values/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Yes, that’s a median price of $149,300.

@Pies:

“Isn’t it time that the VCI community got more aggressive in getting the real facts out to the people? I know this has been mentioned before, but I think we should brainstorm some ideas for a full advertising campaign.”

–

I have an idea for this. You should team up with the GVREB and make a short video like the ones that the REBGV release each month.

http://www.rebgv.org/rebgv-market-update-june-2012

As a graphic designer you should be able to whip one of these up in AfterEffects quite easily. People hate reading but love video and I’m sure you could have some fun animating lines that go down for a change.

If it got some traction with various social media sites who knows what could happen.

Plus it would really piss off REBGV, which should be motivation enough.

Bees against honey?

@Pies: i’m in!

@Ralph Cramdown:

“If they lose $50k in equity, they will have difficulty reaching the next rung up.”

Not necessarily. Because the next rung up may have decreased by $80k. So they just got $30K closer. The problem is if they’re plunged into negative equity and therefore can’t sell.

@Simple: This is an excellent idea. I would definitely be on board with crowd-funding a small series of adverts in bus-station shelters, or using some other methods to get the message out. How should we tackle this? Any ideas? Those with graphics design experience would be instrumental in making this happen.