Comments on: Canadian Housing Grew Faster Than Population, Speculative Mindset Building: BMO

By: Lou Chao

Lou Chao — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:34:12 +0000

In reply to Doomcouver. The last point is key. We can need more supply AND people are overpaying for it.

By: Bruno

Bruno — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:33:13 +0000

In reply to Dennis_K. They email it to their commercial clients. I saw Rob Carrick sharing a screenshot on one a day in advance too, so I'm guessing some people get them early.

By: Woolsock

Woolsock — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:16:35 +0000

In reply to Estevam. It isn't a bad idea. Care would have to be taken to ensure you don't build ghost cities by accident, though, visa-vis the Irish "ghost estates" (slightly different context) left over from the Celtic Tiger years. Is anyone convinced we can be that careful in Canada?

By: Nigel

Nigel — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 04:28:45 +0000

You have to be either batcrap crazy or outright desperate to get into this market. The fundamentals do not apply

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 04:19:13 +0000

In reply to Estevam. Your suggestion has merit. Canada needs to be looking at expanding second and third-tier markets and developing new centres entirely. We can't rely on building more condos in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver forever.

By: Investor

Investor — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 23:44:33 +0000

I always love Better Dwelling’s common sense analyses; however, fundamentals no longer count again in this age. Common sense makes you look like a loser these days. Sentiment rules.

By: AT

AT — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 15:46:59 +0000

Increasing home values are the fuel that drives the Canadian economy and hides the reality of decreased productivity and a worsening economic climate. Reduced income due to COVID – HELOC. Problems funding your kids university – Refinance. Need a new car but no cash – same thing. The whole country is on side because 65% of Canadians are homeowners which provides cover for the politicians who have supported this bubble. In Canada just like the USA the top quintile of income earners drive the vast majority of consumption and GDP. The bottom group have so little to spend that it does not even reflect in the numbers.

By: Dennis_K

Dennis_K — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:53:10 +0000

This appears to be a really great analysis on Mr. Kavcic’s part – it effectively destroys all those pleading the ‘supply problem’ mantra in respect of affordability, and even nullifies the recent Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force Report, which just said to simply ‘build more’, as well as others by the Smart Prosperity Institute.

I really wish BD would provide a link to the document / research that Mr. Kavcic did — I can’t seem to find it online anywhere.

By: Doomcouver

Doomcouver — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 19:29:58 +0000

It’s nice to see some articles challenging the narrative that more supply will fix the issue. I’ve often maintained that supply issues seem to be a minor factor in general for most of the recent price-action of housing in Canada. If you crunch the numbers of housing formation vs housing completions, acceleration in house prices doesn’t seem to correlate to real supply problems at all.

Trying to build your way out of an asset bubble can be dangerous. Once the speculative demand evaporates you can be left with a lot of empty houses that no one wants after the fact, and will worsen the asset crash. That’s what happened in 2008 to many countries like Ireland, Spain, USA etc.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have more supply, but if you’re just going to let speculative investors gobble it up, what’s the point exactly?

By: GTA Landlord

GTA Landlord — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 18:50:38 +0000

In reply to Trader Jim. Rent a place for $4k/month for 12 months less rent that's lost or $4k/month through bad monetary policy. Golly gee whiz, I wonder what I care about more. LOL. Anyone that's ever had a crap tenant knows you don't want any of those suckers in the property anyway.