All good points interested. I personally believe the condo and SFH markets are linked. This idea that they can live independent of one another does not make sense to me. Today's condo owners are tomorrow's SFH owners. If the condo market tanks those people won't have the $$ to buy these single...

Toronto vs Vancouver: Which will have the highest house prices in a decade? http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1177411--toronto-vs-vancouver-which-will-have-the-highest-house-prices-in-a-decade?bn=1

Agreed with you both on all counts. I guess I am not articulating myself well though. What I am trying to say is that I feel it is an apples to apples comparison in the sense that CMHC was not commenting on Toronto as a whole, but specifically on the new condo construction downtown (this is how...

Fair enough. However I have to respectfully disagree with you. To me, the numbers just do not reconcile. In C01 we have 32% of residents being owners, while the CMHC stated in the revised article that 80% of units are occupied by owners. I understand that the CMHC is not specifically referring...

Thanks for posting. :) But I am confused. In the 2006 census, it stated that only 32% of residents in Toronto Centre were owners. So I would assume the other 68% are tenants in the homes that they live in. Now by CMHC's calculations, this figure has magically reversed itself and only 20% (I...

They completely changed the article for some reason. The original one said that 25% of units were vacant and not occupied. Here was the exact quote from the article: The headline also read "How the condo boom threatens 'ghost city' phenomenon". They either changed it because the...

Thank you Interested. Nailed my sentiments perfectly. :) brockm, as Interested mentioned, we have no idea what the actual number of foreign investors is. What if the number is far higher than we think (especially for buildings in the core - as the FP article was alluding to). Who really knows?

Sure, foreign investment is a wonderful thing. But when that investment starts fuelling speculation and makes the local market unaffordable for locals, or it forces locals to spend a greater portion of their net income servicing their mortgage debt, how good is it? Does that not then offset the...

In fairness to Carney, he can't raise and lower rates in response to one sector of the economy, in this case housing. This is where the government needs to step in and do things like raise the minimum down payment, decrease CMHC involvement, and lower the amortization period. At the end of...

Agreed. Anecdotally, few of my friends and acquaintances knew about this.

The only scenario I see where prices flat line or just keep pace with inflation is if rates do not rise and people eventually hit their debt ceiling. In any other scenario where rates go up at all, I can definitely see prices pulling back. The % of pull-back will depend on the % of interest rate...

It looks like we're on our way. Here was a comment posted in the G&M under the article:

^^^^^Unreal. When will the madness end? Something has got to give eventually.

Eug, I hear what you are saying. On the surface a 4-5% yearly appreciation in RE doesn't seem unreasonable. However when we take into account that wages have not even kept pace with that, and that the higher prices are a result of historically low interest rates, then is 4-5% still reasonable...

Spelling shmelling! Forget the rest, go to the best! :D (Sorry folks, I couldn't resist)

I had to stop and think about it as that store name sounded very familiar. Then it hit me, it's a lingerie store I've walked by in Caesars palace. Makes Victorias Secret look tame. :D RE: Lack of Bloor street retail space. I wonder if we'll see the day come (soon) where the strip gets...

Not to speak for Mac, but if you take his post and change it up so that he uses figures for average household income instead of his own personal income, then it would do a better job of supporting his argument that houses are overvalued if we were to use the classic price to income measurement...

Just to clarify my first post, I was thinking more of the non-hot dog vendors. Mostly people selling fake coach purses, Rolex watches, sunglasses, etc. I don't have a problem with hot dog vendors on bloor. And I don't understand why the stores would either. The fake purses, watches, etc, is...

Another bear article linked in today's G&M: http://theeconomicanalyst.com/content/where-we-stand A lot of graphs and charts.

I don't remember seeing many (if any) street vendors on Fifth Ave in NYC when I was there this past summer. I may not be remembering correctly though. Point being TO is not the only place where this elitism takes place. And in a way I can't say I disagree. I think Bloor has an image that should...