ok TK...I agree prices will come down on new construction....but how much???? .....if its not huge ie just about 10k or so or builder doesn't reduce price but just adds on to upgrades...but in meantime while you are waiting, you loose a lot that you want(premium lot).....is it still worth waiting, when you are liking something(mind it its not easy to be able to decide on a builder, like his blue prints & get a lot of your choice)...on top of all, interest rate for mortgage are low.

All opinions are welcome.......

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Pooja

Quote:

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Originally posted by Fido

Yesterday , Harjinder Jolly on Band Baaja was quoting a detached house in Brampton - 3 Bdrm , 1Bdrm finished separate entrance basement , attached garage near William Prkway for .... $250 K ...... And the RJ quipped that @ 3% the mortgage would come to around $700 pm .......

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Hi

News is ...The loss of 129,000 jobs, mostly full-time, is equivalent to the US shedding 1.3 million positions in the month of January. Instead, it lost less than half that number, which the new president called a disaster. In Canada, by comparison, our prime minister said he would not let “occasional bad news” divert him from his current plan. Even when the news was the greatest shedding of family income in any one month in history.

I think its better to wait another 6 months or so

See this too
http://www.greaterfool.ca/

Cheers

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We are what we think
All that we arises are with our thoughts

Can we see future?

Sometime you have Questions that always remain questions for long time even you read lot of theories/equations and expert's view. It took 12 yrs to understand how can globalization/WTO (unfair trade) is good for average man/woman in North America. We moved from cement/steel industry to manufacturing to computer/semiconductors to IT/service industry to phony paper economy. All solid job industries cement/steel/manufacturing /hardware) are moved to cheap labor. That is not a skill base job migration but only cost. Lot of economist gave theory even Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen said “We are moving into direction where saving is bad and credit is king. World will give money to USA to keep spending and this is new economic model." Lou Dobbs on CNN called him on his show long time back and Amartya Sen can not defend American interests with his theory.

Cutting in short…. we need a better defense than optimism at individual and national level. Analyzing media/economist/experts theory is not going to save in bad days. So save your money.


All these statements from experts and govt. are nothing but lies.

For months we have been news:

“Our banks are the most stable in the world.”
“Canadians have less debt than Americans.”
"We are different than USA"
“We are favored among the G7 nations.”
“Immigrant will save Vancouver and GTA”
"Calgary will get saved with inter-provincial immigrant"
"Windsor is not Detroit"
"Bay Street is not Wall Street."
"It's right time to buy home"
"Home value can not be zero like stocks so buy now"
"People in Victoria will be fine because it’s the retirement capital of Canada same like FL"

Larry King live last week when he had Suze Orman on as a guest. Very interesting stuff… 19,000,000 vacant houses with many more to come. People in Tampa with $700,000 mortgages on homes now worth only $250,000….and walking away even though they still have jobs. Some streets with so many vacant homes that the remaining homeowners are cutting the grass on 20-25 area homes just to try and keep the neighbourhood looking decent. Can we see future?



But at the end of the day:
A job is a job and we all need that.
Debt is debt so keep away as much as possible.
A house is a house so buy/rent something that you can sleep.

Good to read:

http://www.greaterfool.ca/

Quote:

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Originally posted by anandasang

I think its better to wait another 6 months or so

See this too
http://www.greaterfool.ca/

Cheers

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If you are worried about how high interest rates might affect you as a future home owner who is better off. Someone who buys a 400k house today at 5% or someone who buys the same house 2 years down the road for 200K at 10%? Without question the latter person. What is going to happen to that person who locked in their 400k house for 5 years at 5% if when their mortgage comes up for renewal, rates are at 10% or significantly higher??? They will be flat out house broke or bankrupt. The person with the 200K house can still manage the payments even if the interest rates go up significantly.

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calgary home prices down $80,871
edm home prices now down $63,339

calgary homes deflating $4,000/mo
edm homes now deflating $3,000/mo


Buyers don't want to take it on even at relatively low interest rates, and flippers/sellers are tired of making payments. In a market that is deflating, serious sellers get in front of the price declines and set their prices lower than their competitors. The alternative is to get overwhelmed by the competition, or run out of equity and let the bank foreclose.

If you- the individual or the family-does not take care of affairs on your own by being economically literate and proactive, you will keep on getting painful lessons. Like Mr. Peter Schiff has stated many a time, prices have to collapse so people can afford these homes, and not with exotic or creative financing.


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I had first hand experience of this while working in the IT industry in Bay Area during the dot com bust. But that bust was confined to a specific sector of the economy and was 'cured' by the magic potion of cheap credit, which at that time, had already been in good circulation. The central bankers merely increased it dosage to extreme levels and ended up creating a cure far worse than the disease.
Thousands of employees are in the process of getting laid off in Alberta and all over Canada and lot of these high paying people have huge mortgages to pay. These are all well paying jobs, with a good multiplier effect. The pittance of EI will not even cover the basic mortgage for most of these people, increasing the chances of bankruptcy and foreclosure.
Not to mention the case of all speculators who bought multiple properties in last 2-3 years and were so far insulated by the relatively good rental market. The rental market is becoming softer everyday (the layoffs have something to do with it) and will pressure a lot of these speculators.

Until a few decades ago, people's hands would tremble before they committed themselves to a 20 or 25 year long mortgage. The real meaning of paying $2000 to $3000 to your banking masters, no matter what-rain or shine, health or sickness,good times or bad, strong economy or weak, fruitful employment or despairs of unemployment- over a really long period of time has been lost. For people have forgotten that the borrower is a slave to the lender. When times are good, not too many borrowers recognize this (Even though more than half of their pay cheque goes on to pay the interest over their deprecating assets such as cars and houses), but when the pay cheque stops, the reality begins to sink in. Too bad, in this day and age, you have to be a heretic to not have a mortgage when you can easily afford to.
The real estate complex has been incredibly successful at luring people by all means- fear, deceit, greed and specious economic reasoning. Buy now or be priced out. Smart people buy houses. Renting is throwing money away. Houses have appreciated at over 7 per cent per annum since the dawn of civilization.

As job losses mount and foreclosures increase and new employment opportunities continue to dwindle, a whole generation of people is about to get painful lesson on the basics of economics. That those in the media lie. Realtors lie. Bankers lie, cheat and swindle. They lie because they are in the business of selling their services and lying comes as a part of their training.

If you- the individual or the family-does not take care of affairs on your own by being economically literate and proactive, you will keep on getting painful lessons. Once this fresh generation of 'suckers' get their lessons, speculation in real estate will freeze for a decade or more. Until the next generation of freshly minted (by immigration, emigration or from our glorious education system) 'suckers' is ready to take their place and the story begins again. How long will it take? No-one knows.

From Yahoo:

There are more signs Canada's housing market is facing a significant slowdown after a double-digit percentage drop in home construction starts last month and a forecast that sales and prices will slide this year.

As the recession digs in and the unemployment rate rises, economists say nervous consumers are standing still when it comes to buying and selling real estate.

The results are increasing numbers of dwellings on the market, dropping prices and a slowdown in construction.

"The Canadian housing correction is in full swing, having a wide impact across the country," BMO Capital Markets economist Robert Kavcic commented Monday.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 153,500 units in January, down 10.9 per cent from December in the steepest monthly drop since March 1995.

It was the fifth straight decline and left home construction at its slackest pace since 2001, well below market expectations of 169,000.

Also Monday, the Canadian Real Estate Association predicted house prices nationally will fall eight per cent this year as the number of Multiple Listing Service sales tumbles 16.9 per cent to 360,900 units.

Three months ago, the association was forecasting only a 2.1 per cent price slippage for 2009 on a three per cent decline in the number of sales.

Its latest forecast would represent the smallest national MLS sales volume since 2000, following a 17.1 per cent drop in 2008.

Gregory Klump, chief economist for the association, said that although there were some incentives for home buyers in the recent federal budget, "they won't take hold until there is an improvement in buyer psychology."

The Jan. 27 budget included a plan to expand the insured mortgage purchase program by $50 billion to $125 billion, which is meant to encourage banks to increase mortgage lending.

Ottawa also increased the RRSP withdrawal limit for qualified home buyers to $25,000 from $20,000, and introduced up to $750 in tax relief for closing costs for first-time buyers.

The real estate association said sales are expected to fall in every province this year, led by declines of about 19 per cent in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

B.C and Alberta, which have seen the biggest price jumps in recent years, are expected to see home prices fall the most, by 10.6 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.

Meantime, the average home price in Newfoundland and Labrador is forecast to rise 4.8 per cent - the only province forecast to see an increase.

CIBC economist Benjamin Tal said he is forecasting a sales drop of about 15 per cent and price decline of about 10 per cent nationwide this year.

Tal said the Canadian housing market is in a "correction, not a free fall." However, "the recovery will not be very quick."

Scotiabank economist Adrienne Warren said the home market is in "retrenchment mode."

"It's no surprise that home builders are pulling back, facing slowing demand and increasing amounts of unsold inventory," Warren said.

"What you are also seeing now is that the condo market has finally cooled off."

Still, Warren said Canada has nowhere near the housing crisis as the United States, where risky lending has made foreclosure sales common.

CMHC said in its report that overall housing starts declined across the country, with a lot of the steam coming off the hot market that had prevailed in most of Western Canada.

"Reduced sales and increased listings in the existing-home market have led to reduced spillover demand in the new-home market," stated Bob Dugan, the Crown corporation's chief economist.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, January's starts were down from December by 30.3 per cent on the Prairies, 29.1 per cent in British Columbia, 14.6 per cent in Ontario, 8.6 per cent in Atlantic Canada and 1.4 per cent in Quebec.

"Western Canada in particular continues to see activity fall off a cliff, with starts in B.C. at the lowest level since 2002, and in Alberta the weakest since 1996," BMO's Kavcic wrote in a note. "Both provinces are seeing activity at half year-ago levels."

And last month's steep national drop in single-family-unit starts "adds further downside risk to economic growth forecasts," commented TD Bank economist Pascal Gauthier.

Gauthier said single-unit construction is generally less volatile than multiple-unit starts, and the sharp downturn "bodes poorly for the private residential investment component of real GDP growth."

The TD commentary added that improved home affordability will likely support starts this year at the pre-boom level of about 150,000, but "if starts continue on this downward momentum without signs of stabilization ... even this prudent forecast could fall by the wayside."