Tag Archives: ottawa

FFFA! Bankrates, Burnaby, Bubbles

It’s that time of the week again!

Time for our end of the week news roundup on open topic discussion thread for the weekend – Friday Free-for-all time!

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

BOC rate stance affect on housing
Burnaby couple wants to pay higher tax
Variable mortgages are safe again
The five largest housing bubbles
Bear motivators
Ownership good or bad for economy?
Vancouver Island investors fear loss
How many Victoria listings are foreclosures?
Ottawa condo surplus

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

Disappearing ghost towns in the media

This is odd.  The Globe and Mail published an article about the condo boom titled “How condo boom threatens a ghost city phenomenon” and included the following alarming section:

“CMHC estimates that roughly 25 per cent of condominiums in the Greater Toronto Area are sold but sitting vacant — shades of Miami at the height of its collapsed condo bubble in 2007. Other analysts say the 25 per cent figure may be too low.

“This is the ghost city phenomenon,” Mr. Holt said.

Condo developers in Eastern cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, appear to be rushing to sell and build units before interest rates start to climb, and the market crashes.”

But if you visit that link you’ll no longer find that text and the headline has been changed to “Housing starts shoot higher on back of condo boom” (although as of this writing the URL still shows the original title).  Why the dramatic change in tone?