I agree with you in most of the part. Everyone talks about local market, location and we are different. But banks, mortgage lenders, Investment Corporation are same. Now Canadian banks are opening their mouth that how much they are involve in sub prime business. I remember lots of experts were saying we are not into sub prime business. Oh yes we are smart, rich people (can afford any price) so we don’t need to go sub prime business.

We are not far that more information will come from corporate world and we will see that in last 2 yrs we wrote down same sub prime %age loan that we had in US.



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http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/index.html

RBC, Scotiabank feel heat of subprime meltdown

Later in the afternoon, Bank of Nova Scotia said it would take a $190-million ($135-million after-tax) hit on assets tied up in the non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market.

Scotia also cushioned the blow with a $200-million pre-tax gain related to Visa.

The two join CIBC, which last Friday simultaneously announced a pre-tax $463-million subprime write-down in the fourth quarter and a $456-million gain related to Visa.

Dundee Securities analyst John Aiken estimated yesterday's writedown at RBC would cover off a third of the bank's total subprime exposure of $1.2-billion.

RBC also said on Tuesday it would take a $120-million ($80-million after-tax) charge related to increased liabilities in its credit card customer loyalty program, alongside a $325-million gain related to its stake in Visa Inc., following that company's global restructuring.


BMO taking $320-million charge

Bank of Montreal on Friday became the latest big Canadian bank to disclose that it's taking a hit as a result of the recent credit crunch, saying it will record one-time charges of about $320-million in the fourth quarter.


HSBC increased its bad debt charge related to its U.S. consumer finance business to US$3.4-billion for the third quarter, which was higher than analysts had expected and up from US$2.2-billion in the second quarter.

The charge was US$1.4-billion more than had been implied by extending first-half trends. HSBC said half of that was due to deterioration in the subprime housing market and the remainder was because problems had spread to unsecured lending, such as credit cards and personal loans.

Morgan Stanley joins a growing list of financial companies, including Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., to report large write-downs from exposures to lower-quality debt. Those three companies alone have in the last month announced about US$24-billion of subprime write-downs.

That is true that Canadian Banks too have exposure to sub-prime market, but even this exposure is all in the US market. We in Canada don't have sub-prime lending. In most cases (excluding fraudulent mortgages) banks don't lose anything in a foreclosure here due to CMHC/GE mortgage insurance. It is these institutions that would be hit harder if the foreclosures become a norm and the prices tank. With the interest rates still hovering around 6 and not likely to go up (rather come down), in my opinion, we won't face what US is facing.

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Rajeev Narula, Broker, REALTOR®
ACE TEAM REALTY INC., Brokerage
10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, Suite 704
(Opp Square One - HWY10/403)
Mississauga, ON L5R 3K6
Bus: 1-888-355-3155 Ext. 300
Fax: 1-888-443-3155
Email:
Web: http://www.RAJEEV.ca" rel="nofollow">LINK

Stepper Homes here in Calgary has been trying to flog 12 newly built or almost completed spec houses, all in the price range of $475-500K.

They have placed ads for the last 2months straight in the Calgry Herald. Today's ad says "By the time you move in your house could be worth $75K more" and quoting "Liar" Sing Louie from CMHC with his BS prediction about 2008 values. Talk about depseration......I guess the $25K of interest (6% @ rough cost of $400K per house) they are paying each month to their bank must be cutting into tthe bottom line.....



http://www.edmontonsun.com/Business/News/2007/11/18/4665404-sun.html

Resale home listings rose over 50% in September, and at the same time, actual sales slipped 44% from a year earlier to 1,042 units.

Why has the market gone from being red hot to ice cold overnight?

Put another way, a full 74% of respondents rightly or wrongly think that real estate in Edmonton is either going nowhere or will drift down over the next 12 months.

Quote:

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Originally posted by rahul_singh23
Stepper Homes here in Calgary has been trying to flog 12 newly built or almost completed spec houses, all in the price range of $475-500K.
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Quote:

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Originally posted by crenshaw

Quote:

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Originally posted by rahul_singh23
Stepper Homes here in Calgary has been trying to flog 12 newly built or almost completed spec houses, all in the price range of $475-500K.
snip

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For someone who has no intention of buying a property in the next little while, you sure do spend a lot of time researching any articles that predict a fall in prices (whether they be from Calgary, Edmonton, the States or Timbuktu).

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

I agree and there are lots of people at this time who can afford but waiting for right time. Bull will get panic and laugh on us as RE market getting down. I have seen that cycle in 2005 when Bulls were laughing on Bears in US.

As we don’t have name called "SUBPRIME Mortgage" but we have that kind of arrangement for the people who can not afford traditional mortgages and does not need verification. Just little price down in AB is creating so much noise especially in experts’ community and people start saying “AB is not place for good investment in RE. Go to Vancouver or Toronto”. What happened in 4 months still strong fundamental did not change?


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http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071120.wibworld20/GIStory/

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — One of the troubling features of the U.S. subprime mortgage mess is the number of times experts have insisted the worst is over.

First, we were told the housing slump had bottomed out. Not.

Then, we were assured that subprime mortgage problems were contained and wouldn't affect banks and brokers. Wrong again.

And what about the experts who pointed out that housing is only a small piece of the economy, leaving the mighty consumer unscathed? Logic suggests this hypothesis is also flawed. Several major retailers, including Starbucks and J.C. Penney, are now sounding the alarm about future sales.

Now some economists are taking comfort in the notion that no matter how bad it gets in residential real estate, the commercial side of the business is still healthy.

Please stop siting articles and give your own logical explanation since I am reading such articles for the last 3 years, going down going up and they are rigt 50% of the time. Here is my take the Canadian housig market will stay strong.
1) lending practices sound.
2) Mostly illegal suites in houses rented out.
3) Most people (demographically) value real estate and are welling to invest.
4) Prostitution income (also tax free)
5) Marijuana/other drug income also need houses as grow ups.
6) Foreign cash in flux-Hong Kong and Chinese govt officials illegal money.
due to immigration. Also new people need place to live.
The bad side renting is becomming problematic and people may want to invest in other countries instead.