The National Post is running an article entitled, "
Canada's Housing Boom Is Officially Over."
The Canadian housing boom was declared officially over Thursday.
A slide in existing home sales that started in the West late last year spread to Toronto in the first quarter of 2008, taking the heat out of prices nationwide and driving the ratio of new listings to sales to a nine-year high, figures released Thursday showed.
"Canada's six-year housing market boom is officially over," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "There's no question the numbers were probably distorted by a few feet of snow in the first quarter of the year, but I think there's some very real underlying cooling underway here."
The Canadian Real Estate Association reported 75,476 homes changed hands in the first quarter of 2008, down 13% from the first quarter of 2007. In March, sales dropped 18.7% from the same month the year before, including a 39.7% slide in Calgary, a 34% drop in Edmonton and a 22.2% drop in Toronto.
Average prices rose just 5.5% to $327,620 in the first quarter over the first quarter of 2007, the smallest price increase since the fourth quarter of 2001. Prices rose 11% last year and 10% on average in each of the prior five years.
I am quite happy about this news, and it further lends ammunition to us who don't believe the lies that real estate people say, like housing prices will keep going up. In this report, price rises are decelerating, and it's only a matter of time before they start declining.
People looking for houses, stay strong, it will be a buyer's market soon. Lets hope we return to a time where housing is actually affordable.
Down here in California, the real estate market is a slaughter. One of my friends who bought a house as an investment, way the heck in the middle of no where, has already seen the bank foreclose on three of her neighbours. Forests of "For Sale" signs are cropping up all over the place.
Check out this
map of foreclosed properties in California.
