On 6 Sep 2012
in
Massive Canadian Housing Bubble?,
TOLurker said:
TO Lurker back again.... I'm living the bubble here in lofty Toronto, land of the 1000's of condo towers (and at least 100+ under construction now!)
Been reading patrick.net since 2002 or 2003 (when did I find you Patrick?) and it was expensive but no where the craziness reported from Bay Area, Las Vegas, Florida, etc...
Now Vancouver has topped (sales down 30% to 40%, prices down 10%-15%) and Toronto could be, may be, rolling over.
A former politician (too honest and straight talking to stay in politics) has a blog where he is trying to work out the horniness out of the house-horny www.greaterfool.ca
Meanwhile, I'm having the problem all you folks did in 2002-2007. We were lucky to have bought a house (not condo) in 2005, bought conservatively with a huge down payment and a mortgage below our limit. No bidding war, but it felt like we were competing with other fools who overextended. Guess we were the fools because whaddya know, it kept going up over here for 7 years! Now it's too expensive to upgrade from our starter home (another $200K-$300K?) the cost for an addition is enormous (easily $200 / SF) since all contractors are busy.
Private sales however are finally blooming since the Realtor (R) lockhold over MLS has been broken -- thank you Competition Bureau Commissioner, Melanie Aitken!)
For logistical reasons, we plan to relocate within the city anyway, but will probably rent for a year while we find something to buy. Or maybe not buy. Even rents have gone up for single family home on the subway lines -- I used to see $2,000, $2,500 now it's easily $3,000, $3,500, $4,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath in reasonable condition in the same 'hoods. Nuts.
