Canadian housing crash? Where`s chicken Little?

[chargerharry]

Hi all
I saw this little bit of journalistic liberty on CTV News last night. There are actually several clips but the one I saw was from that hotbed of real estate activity, Winnipeg, Mb. http://watch.ctv.ca/news/#clip72741

Some new Merrill Lynch report is stating that Canadian house prices, especially Western Canadian prices are way over valued. Vancouver is 35% overvalued, Edmonton is 25% and Regina is a whopping 50% overvalued. Based on what?!? We have discussed the pricing in VCR at the REIN meetings. We have also gone over the fact that Sask has a worst Housing Affordability Index level than Edmonton. Ben Tal`s report states the exact oposite and that Canadian real estate is actually a bit undervalued. In fairness to the newspiece, they did state that Alberta had probably the best fundamentals and least chance to be hurt by the impending falling of the sky. Toward the end of the piece I saw, they finally `fessed up and noted that real selling prices were roughly 3% lower than last year and some were up to 10% off. Well, DUH!!!

I just wanted to throw this out there for discussion. I am sure others have seen it and would like to share their thoughts. Have a great weekend.
Harry

 

[DianneDachyshyn]

I am so thankful to REIN for training us to see through the fog of such ridiculous "news" reports. This is so absurd, it`s laughable. I have read several articles within the past three days and they have all contradicted each other. This CTV report is one of the worst I`ve seen. Reports like this are no more than fear mongering, planting seeds of terror as they compare our market to that of the U.S. I feel sorry for the public who gets swept up into this type of sensational "journalism" because it will affect not only what they feel and believe, but also how they act in response to those fears.

 

[Shinto]

All I see is better times ahead for buyers, such as us!

 

[thejules]

Yeah Merrill Lynch! Weren`t they the ones touting those Dot Com Stocks in the earlier part of the millennium. We don`t pay much attention to national numbers. Focus on your regional real estate market.