Canada's Housing Bubble

Jul 30, 2010 Chris Zappone smh.com.au

Australia -- National city home prices fell for the first time in 18 months in June, as rising interest rates sent auction clearance rates lower.

Median national home prices fell by 0.8 per cent in June, in raw terms, from a 0.6 per cent increase in May, according to RP Data-Rismark figures. It was the largest monthly fall in home prices since April 2008, shaving the median national dwelling price by $3000 for the month to $465,000.

Jul 29, 2010  Liz Phillips dailymail.co.uk

Homeowners are facing a doomsday scenario of property prices diving by up to a quarter by the end of 2012.

This huge plunge could wipe more than £42,000 off the value of the average home.

For the 3.3million who bought in the high-cost years of 2006 and 2007, as well as those who have bought this year, the spectre of negative equity and repossession could loom again.

Jul 29, 2010 yattermatters.com

Astonishing market performance on detached homes in July 2010 in Greater Vancouver.

West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby

Jul 28, 2010 Bob Herbert nytimes.com

The pain coursing through American families is all too real and no one seems to know what to do about it. A rigorous new analysis for the Rockefeller Foundation shows that Americans are more economically insecure now than they have been in a quarter of a century, and the trend lines suggest that things will only get worse.

The answer to the age-old question of whether to go long or short on your mortgage is unclear yet again.

Jul 28, 2010 Garry Marr Financial Post

Not that there are a lot of people buying houses these days, but the answer to the age-old question of whether to go long or short on your mortgage is unclear yet again.

The Bank of Canada’s second quarter-of-a-point rate increase in the past two months is likely not going to do much to boost a real estate market that saw sales drop almost 20% across the country in June from a year ago.

Jul 28, 2010 Garth Turner GreaterFool.ca

Since the spring of 2006, US real estate prices have steadily eroded while confidence in housing all but evaporated. Thus ended the greatest property boom in American history, which took prices to new highs. Easy credit and a casino mentality helped fuel it.

But all booms end badly. This, no exception. In fact the bust was so pivotal its impact was felt around the world, which continues to this day.

Jul 28, 2010 Fish fishyre.blogspot.com

Buyers - do your self a favour. Keep calm!

Just because the weather is hot doesn't mean you have to be frightened into thinking we are in a hot market...we aren't. Sales are dropping fast.

Sure listings are not exploding but sales are dropping so fast that the MOI are moving up rapidly.

Jul 28, 2010 Christopher Pavese blogs.forbes.com

Australia: Another Land Shortage

New homes starts in Australia hit a six-year high last quarter thanks to stimulus spending on public housing. In all, home starts were almost 35 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2009, the fastest annual pace in eight years. Approvals to build new homes surged 43 percent between May and December last year, leaving a big pipeline of construction still to come. Growth in approvals has leveled off in the past few months but they still remain 37 percent above last year's low. Yet analysts still allege that far fewer homes are being built than needed to meet demand. We shall see.

Jul 27, 2010 Weekly Stats

Jul 27, 2010 Daniel Indiviglio theatlantic.com

A lot of blame has been thrown around for allowing the housing bubble to grow too large. A common target of criticism is the Wall Street banks. They packaged and sold mortgages that they probably raised their eyebrows at before shrugging as they sold them to investors. This weekend, Gretchen Morgenson from the New York Times takes these firms to task for this practice. But her analysis triggers another question: why did investors allow them to do so?

Jul 27, 2010 Village Whisperer WhispersFromTheEdgeOfTheRainForest

As July comes to a close, it is increasingly clear that the real estate market is changing.

On Friday I wrote that MPC Intelligence Inc., a local market research firm, counted 6,659 condo units being put into the marketing phase between March 1 and July 1, 2010.

MPC noted that this amount of inventory approaches numbers thrown onto the market during the headiest days of pre-sales in 2007. Sales, however, are nowhere near 2007 levels.

July 26, 2010 Peter Barnes FOXBusiness

With little fanfare, the U.S. government has rapidly become the nation’s top backer of mortgages that require little or no money down, with taxpayer guarantees on them surpassing $1 trillion earlier this year, a FOX Business analysis shows.

“Zero down” mortgages as high as $1 million have been backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which by law offers most of its loans with no down payment required. Such “no money down” jumbo loans were approved in higher-cost housing markets, VA officials said. The average VA loan is $207,000.

The average rental apartment vacancy rate in Calgary has risen from a year ago but rent has also declined, according to the spring Rental Market Survey released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Jul 26, 2010 Tamara Gignac Calgary Herald

Inner city hit hardest

Vacancy rates in Calgary continue to climb amid a weak job market and a population exodus not seen in the city for decades.

Some 17,000 dwellings sit empty -- including apartments, condos, homes and duplexes -- according to the 2010 civic census.

For the first time since 1992, more people moved out of the city than arrived here. That's helped push Calgary's overall vacancy rate to almost four per cent, up from just over three per cent in 2009.

Jul 26, 2010 Jesse housing-analysis.blogspot.com

This blog often deals with subjects that border on the abstract when it comes to the nuts and bolts of real estate investing. I recently viewed a spreadsheet used by a full-time real estate investor, one also used by many of this investor's acquaintances in the same line of work. This post is devoted to me explaining what factors they are using in their spreadsheet to calculate returns.

Jul 25, 2010

Many open houses in Greater Vancouver in this summer weekend,  Vancouver west 412 opens...

Click here to search for open houses by region in Vancouver...

Jul 24, 2010 Village Whisperer WhispersFromTheEdgeOfTheRainForest

Back on July 10th we talked about the Kelowna development of Invue hiring Vancouver Condo King Bob Rennie. Desperate to move product in a stagnating market, Invue was dramatically hacking prices by 40% to dump inventory and get out of Dodge.

Jul 24, 2010 Bruce Erskine thechronicleherald.ca

Real estate sales in Nova Scotia are cooling as the weather warms up.

The Nova Scotia Association of Realtors reported Monday that single-family residential listings were down 0.8 per cent between April and June compared to the same period last year.

"Sales are slowing," association president Karen Edwards said in an interview Monday.

Jul 24, 2010 Vancouver Sun

There may have been good reasons to raise interest rates this week but the Bank of Canada has not told us what they were.

In fact, its Monetary Policy Report, released Thursday, made a compelling case for leaving the benchmark overnight rate where it was rather than increasing it by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.75 per cent.

Here's some of what the central bank said: