The federal government has announced that they are closing the immigrant investor program.
So how does this wash out with Vancouver HAM-hype?
If prices crash now does that mean that all the salespeople that used ‘foreign money’ instead of ‘in debt locals’ as a justification for high prices were correct?
A source said the government is acting based on data that show that, 20 years after arriving in Canada, an immigrant investor has paid about $200,000 less in taxes than a newcomer who came in under the federal skilled worker program, and almost $100,000 less than one who was a live-in caregiver.
In the past 28 years, more than 130,000 people have come to Canada under the investor program, including applicants and their families.
And what about those ‘in debt locals’?
Turkey shared some interesting numbers on the sheer size of Canadian debt growth:
Let’s start with non-mortgage debt:
Equifax said Monday that its figures show that consumer debt, excluding mortgages, rose to $518.3-billion through the end of November 2013. That was up 4.2 per cent from $497.4-billion a year earlier.
Up 20 billion dollars in a year; the total is 520 billion. That works out to about $15k per Canadian man, woman, and child.
Meanwhile, overall consumer debt, including mortgages, also continues to rise — up 9.1 per cent to $1.422-trillion from $1.303-trillion a year earlier.
Up 120 billion dollars in a year; the total is 1.42 billion. That’s about $41k per Canadian man, woman, and child.
Now the editorializing bit.
High debt levels are not a big concern in current conditions, which signal a stabilizing economy, improvement in the unemployment rate and an anticipated gradual increase in interest rates.
An increase in debt, by itself and without context, is not a troubling sign in an improving economy. It’s the friggin’ size of the thing that’s a catastrophe! These numbers are absurd. Plus, BC’s numbers have traditionally been worse.
