Housing Market?

[Mr Ontario]

Thoughts on the present housing market? Going up/keeping steady/Housing going to drop? Good time to buy or sell?

[shithead]

Leveling off and begining to drop.

[Big D]

i live in northern Ontario, and the prices are out of control, way to high.
specially for a small town.

[ironwill]

Plenty of speculation both ways.......Im hoping flexxxy is correct....
some are saying spring of 2009, housing starts will be up....1.3 million this yr in the US, compared to 2.3 million starts same time 2007.....If the optimistic specialists are correct, we may see the correction that is taking place in the market right now stay static and rise slowly, but you wont see the fast gains for a long while again im afraid...
The southern ontario market is saturated with homes for sale major joblosses etc..The calgary area market is becoming saturated more and more, many homes on the market not moving fast this yr..., good time to negotiate a good deal....
And i think that is exactly what we are going to do...woooot

[Redz]

It depends on the city, certain places are still booming while otehr markets have slowed, job losses play a roll in this too. The London housing market is still rock solid right now, my house has gone up over 30,000 since I bought a year and a half ago.

[AlbertaBeef]

East coast especially Nfld is the hot spot now i hear tell. If I had some extra scratch I would be picking up a few out there. Also got a buddy who just moved to PEI and said it's a pretty active market.

[jdumbell]

People have been predicting this for many many years and these same people have been "waiting" and they're still renting a basement/appartment to this day. I'm in ON btw. IMO, buy a place you love and just live your life and be happy :)

[Canadian Bodybuilding]

Just keeps rising here on the east coast. Not like before but nothing stopping or going down. I think it won't stop for a long time.

[Bowlcut]

Market's going to ****ing plummet.. If you own, get out now

If you're looking to buy.. The longer you wait the better off you'll be.

I would not get out right now if this is a long term investment.
If one has their "dream" home that they plan to be in the next 20 years then there is no concern.

However if one wants to gamble, sell their house, and when the market drops buy up 2 places and play the waiting game that is another story.

No point buying now if one can do with renting the next few years.
There is concern by Merril that Canada could be hit hard, but even the article states this might not happen. http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080925.RHOUSING25/TPStory/?query=

Luxury home sales are down and are supposed to be an indicator for the rest of the market
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080925.whousing0925/BNStory/Business/

I honestly doubt we will see the same problems as the USA in housing because credit is worth more in Canada. We don't have 5.5% inflation, though national was at 3.4%. Our inflation is probably do more to rising fuel costs than a currency losing its value like the US dollar.

Also the lending practices in the USA are not replicated here and most people can pay their mortages, but I am worried that if things get back many middle class families (already taxed too much and having stagnant wages), though probably going to cover their mortages, will not have excess money to spend on consumption.

[Mr Ontario]

Fack me!

Whats the word on good interest rate at the bank?

[BryanWilliams]

crashing like woah here

[Gettin'r'round]

Some places are crashing but from what? Highest levels EVER! Didn't some houses in Calgary/Edmonton go up like 25% a year? My house is worth quite a bit more than what I paid 7 years ago. Things would really need to get bad go back to what I paid. People seem to forget how the US got into this mess. Some people got mortgages for every member of their families so that they could simply split the mortgage broker fees! The same thing happened with the tech boom. When ANYONE thought they were a stock market whiz and could make major $ without trying, LOOK OUT! Same thing in the US, people were flipping houses like mad and when the tide went out, you could see those that were swimming naked. Canadians just are not as risky and greedy as those in the US. We also don't have a gov't borrowing 500billion per year to keep things going.

[Anatomy]

interest rates just went up a little on 5yr terms. the biggest interest rate news is that the vrm discount went away.

some of my general thoughts...

re markets are localized and generally follow income and job growth trends. for investment purposes watch for areas where employment is high, population and salaries are increasing and make your purchases in the meaty part of the market by buying housing where mortgages are still affordable for people with average income. Edmonton seems to have pulled back farther than is justified by the current state of the economy. There are some smoking deals around and salaries are still rising at 5% annually and increasing in migration from ON and QC. If energy does a strong pullback it will be felt in Calgary first and strongest while the Edmonton market will be slower to react to a downswing and will be more resistant when it does hit. There is a good chance that we're still years away from that.

Properties in ON still cash flow really well and there are enough voters there that you can bet the federal govt and business are working to improve the economy there. my feeling is that we'll see a recovery in the next couple of years. East coast is a great long term play since boomers will want to retire to pretty places and it is still a relative bargain to buy there. BC will continue to be fed by the end of the olympics push, gas exploration and pacific rim migration as well as some of our better financed boomers looking for warm and pretty living in canada.