Housing

The Bank of Canada took a good look at the Canadian economy, saw it was sinking into the mire, glanced at the collapsed prices of commodities, particularly oil, saw how they were wreaking havoc in Canada, and then looked at the global economy, particularly at China and the US, and freaked out with the realization (acknowledgement) that things are heading south FAST.

Canada's real estate market has started to look eerily similar to the conditions that were present before the United States' real estate crash...This article reviews the data to compare the Canadian real estate values to the U.S. real estate market, to suggest why the Canadian real estate market is due for a significant correction.

The Canadian housing bubble will never blow up. There’s simply too much “plankton” in the water. It keeps the “food chain” healthy and offers ample nourishment for the “big wales and sharks” and shorting the Canadian housing bubble is useless. Here's why.

The most recent S&P/Case-Shiller home price numbers...[show a] strong month-over-month basis, with 19 of 20 cities tracked posting gains. New York was the only city to see a month-over-month decline, while San Francisco posted the biggest gain at 3.04%. The composite 10-city and 20-city indices gained roughly 0.80% month-over-month, and they gained roughly 5% year-over-year.

The real estate sector in Canada is in a bubble that could burst at any time according to the IMF, Deutsch Bank, the Bank of Canada and The Economist.

Canada’s housing bubble has been a sight to behold. Home prices only dipped 8% when the US housing market crashed. Then it re-soared. Now, across the country, home prices are 26% higher than they were at the already crazy peak in 2008. In Toronto, they’re 42% higher! There is a major drawback Canada's housing bubble beyond the fact that it will eventually crash with terrible consequences.

The Canadian housing market is deep into bubble territory. We all know that bubbles can go on for longer than most people think but with the crash in oil prices and people fully believing their own hype, the market is set up for a big fall from grace. Canadian households are deep into debt and make American households look like penny pinchers. Here are five charts showing that the implosion in Canada’s housing market is inevitable.

Over the last 14 years, house prices in Canada have increased by 150%, twice as fast as in the U.S...[and] far outpacing household incomes. Any increase in interest rates would prick the bubble, and its implosion would trigger all sorts of mayhem to the point that the Canadian government has expressed concerned that such an event would be a significant risk to the "stability of the financial system".

This post takes a look at the appreciation (or in some cases, depreciation) of home prices in 11 developed markets. New Zealand, Canada and Australia are in a league of their own at the top, while Germany, Ireland and Japan are at the bottom. Where are the U.S. and the U.K.? Read on!

A recent Gallup survey on expected future returns of asset prices shows that most Americans still think that owning a home is the best way to generate a high return in the future. Nothing could be further from the truth! It just shows how totally out of touch with reality the average American is.