Canada's Housing Bubble

Jul 07, 2010 Duncan Davidson Planet Yelnick

Coming on the heels of weakness in Australian property markets, evidence is pouring in of a housing bust in the frozen north: Statistics Canada reports a 10.8% drop in building permits. In addition, home sales in June fell 30% in Vancouver and 42% in Calgary. These trends may be blips and reverse, but the sharpness of the drop mirrors the US experience in 2006.

The commodity countries like Canada and Australia trade on Chinese growth. With China tightening, a fall is not surprising. Home sales in China itself were down 50% in May. More predictions are coming in of this tightening popping the Chinese housing bubble.  As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports:

Standard Chartered has told clients to prepare for a fall in property prices of up to 30pc in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, and other large cities in China as the delayed effects of monetary tightening begin to bite.