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Monday, December 9, 2013

Is the Canadian housing market bubble about to burst ?


I hope so.  The hype and the unrealistic price tags, especially for the new downtown Toronto condominiums, was destined to end some day.  The sooner the better, IMO.  
On the other hand,  the "bubble burst" doom and gloom has been predicted for the last several years and it has not made even a pinpoint of a dent in the roaring real estate market in not only Ontario but other cities of Canada.  
So, let's take all the gloom and doom with a pinch of salt.

Brenda Bouw writing at Yahoo Finance:
....‘Dr. Doom’ warns Canada’s    housing bubble about to burst.  
It’s the doctor versus the governor in the ongoing debate over the direction of Canada’s housing market.
On the pessimistic side there’s Nouriel Roubini, the man known as “Dr. Doom” for his pessimistic outlook on the global economy. He recently pinpointed Canada’s housing market as a bubble set to pop.
Canada is in the company of other housing markets that Roubini (known as one of the few to correctly predict the U.S. housing crash) says are showing “signs of frothiness, if not outright bubbles,” including Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
More optimistic is Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz, who reiterated again last week that he doesn’t see a bubble. Instead, he believes there will be a gradual slowing of sales activity in the years to come.
“The bank continues to expect a soft landing in the housing market,” he said, repeating calls economists have been making for the past several months.
So far, predictions on both sides are proving to be incorrect as Canada’ housing market continues to defy expectations. That’s despite rising borrowing rates being offered by the banks and government moves to tighten mortgage conditions to prevent a U.S.-style crash.
“2013 was a year of pleasant surprises for Canada’s housing market,” BMO Capital Markets senior economist Sal Guatieri said in a recent note. “Far from extending last year’s deep sales dive on mortgage-rule turbulence, the market pulled up sharply and is cruising at an above-normal altitude.”....

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