Tag Archives: boomers

Open Topic

Friday Free-for-all!

109
109 Comments

Welcome!

What time is it? It’s time for yet another Friday Free-for-all!

This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–BOC rate hike?
–Boomers overexposed on RE
–Condos finally hot again
–Bad ending to housing surge
–Hyper-mega-bull called it
–middle class housing projects
–Fintrac fine for Canadian bank
–

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Open Topic

FFFA! gas, bubble, soft landing

185
185 Comments

Well here we are, the end of another week.

That means it’s time for another Friday Free-for-all!

This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.  Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Russia/China shakes up LNG market
–No housing or mortgage crisis
–Overdue for a full blown correction?
–CMHC: get ready for soft landing
–Rennie: focus on old people
–Millenials richer with more debt
–Greatest RE bubble not done bursting
–

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

BC, economy, opinion, predictions, renting, retirement

Gen Y not buying a lot of Vancouver houses

153
153 Comments

From the obvious files: expensive homes are expensive.

The Globe and Mail has an article about changing attitudes towards real estate by Generation Y in Vancouver.

Essentially: they are more inclined to live urban and remain mobile.

They also say that Boomers are downsizing into condos.

Ben Smith, VP of sales and marketing at Rennie & Associates, says he’s already seen a major shift in the last six months. This year he’s seen a sudden surge in demand for three-bedroom condos, purchased by downsizing boomers. Those boomers are trading their homes for spacious condos. Those same boomers are helping their kids with a down payment on their own condo, which is the only way a lot of Millennials will ever afford to live in Vancouver.

“It’s exciting, because for years we’ve been talking about this, and we’re finally seeing it happen,” he says. “There is $88-billion worth of clear-title real estate tied up with boomers. In B.C. and Vancouver especially, we are all equity and no income. If you don’t have that down payment, you don’t have a home.”

Read the full article here.

Canada, Open Topic, opinion, predictions, renting

Cult of ownership in trouble?

69
69 Comments

The Globe and Mail has an article about shifting perceptions on home ownership in Canada.

Based on a very small sample size, they are predicting that young people in Canada are becoming less willing and able to buy property.

“Last year, in a class of 29 students, a clear majority said they would buy,” Prof. Harris wrote me in an e-mail. “I was surprised because I had spent a lot of time speaking about the dangers of price bubbles, and about the opinion of most experts that the markets in many Canadian cities had moved, or were moving, into bubble territory.”

This year, only five of 23 said they’d buy and 18 chose to rent. “Although the assignment was the same and the content of my lectures pretty much the same, the pattern of response was very different,” Prof. Harris wrote.

Its certainly not what you’d call a wide ranging survey, so what do you think?  Are attitudes towards home ownership changing in Canada or do all the kids still want real estate?

Canada, debt, equity, hype, mortgage, opinion, prices

When mommy and daddy help you buy.

53
53 Comments

It’s hard to buy your first place.

Thats why more and more parents are chipping in to help junior get their feet in the real estate market.

“The (housing) market would have been much weaker if we didn’t have this phenomenon. There’s no question about that,” says Tal, deputy chief economist of CIBC World Markets.

“I’d say this generation is getting more help than any other generation did, but I’d say they need this help more than any generation, too.”

Interest rates may be keeping monthly payments relatively affordable, but the big issue for young first-time buyers has been coming up with sizable downpayments when the average price of a home in the GTA is now more than $534,000 — more than $850,000 for a detached in the City of Toronto — almost double the $293,000 they averaged just a decade ago.

Saving can be especially tough when many first-time buyers are still paying off student loans and dealing with rents that can run from $1,100 to more than $2,000 a month.

Read the full article in the The Star.