Sunday, December 2, 2012

First Sunday of December...



Real Estate agent Larry Yatkowsky is out with his stats from November and  he notes Vancouver’s detached average home price had dropped to where it is only slightly higher than the low of last July.

The detached average home price now sits at  $1,053,902 which is now down 14% from the February 2012 peak.

Apparently the Vancouver home sale dollar volume fell 33% year over year from last November.

Meanwhile, as if this news wasn't dismal enough for the real estate industry, there is yet another prominent news organization pointing at our housing market and calling it for what it is: a massive bubble.

This time it's Time Magazine with "Oh NO, Canada! Are We Watching Another North American Financial Crisis Unfold!"

Time looks at Canada's skyrocketing household debt and wonders if Canadians are about to face a 2007-style crisis.
“Borrowing to buy property has helped make Canadians some of the most leveraged consumers in the world, at a time when their counterparts in other heavily indebted countries—such as the U.S.—are digging out. Household debt is now 163.4% of disposable income in Canada, close to the U.S. level at the height of the subprime crisis.”
Time notes that few analysts in America in 2007 predicted that the U.S. real estate market would blow up in spectacular fashion and they wonder if analysts here are being just as wilfully blind.

I'm sure the likes of Tsur Somerville, Rennie, et al are not pleased.

It seems the entire world is now aware of the fact we are in a massive bubble, and yet we still deny the reality to ourselves.

Sigh.

Notwithstanding... it's the first sunday of December and it's that time of the year. I'm off to string the outdoor lights.

Two renditions of my favourite carol to launch the holidays festivities for you.  




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3 comments:

  1. Take a read through the Time article's comment section. There are only a few comments and they all diss the article but none of the comments really deal with the arguments presented in the article. Are the commentators are all involved in Real Estate? One even states ALL people have at least 20% equity so they can weather a downturn but the article actually says nearly 50% of mortgages are high risk. Willful ignorance on some people's part.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I recall the biggest argument in favour of support for Chinese real estate was that investors put a minimum of 40% down.

      That was all good and fine.....until prices fell more than 40% in some cities.

      Oh look dear...we only have the debt leftover now!

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  2. That SFH line has so far to go to hit the 2008 lows it's not even funny. Makes this bear wonder if even the most moderate bear dream can come true for Christmas 2014.

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