Re grain of salt.
Noticed was the skepticism. Nothing wrong with that when certainty is at question. If needed, I’ll lend you my tiara – it’s polished daily in this business.

This is going to sound a bit trite but, if your game is to buy and have a ‘home’ then, from my perspective, there really isn’t a time that is better than the other – the long run will look after you. If your gig is investing that is another story.

Re your friend and the developer – if the offers didn’t go through because the property did not appraise he may have a problem. ** Understand that included in the reference to appraisal, is the exposure that the bank might have ie: the others only had 5% down and worked part time. At 50% down and a career job the exposure dynamic for the bank would change quickly.

Just to be cheeky – re: ripped off – considering the divorce rate in this country the risk factor probably isn’t the real estate.

Thanks for the warm fuzzies.

And I don’t know if we think “grain of salt” means the same thing. Wiki says “In common parlance, if something is to be taken with a grain of salt, it means that a copious measure of skepticism should be applied regarding a claim.” So I just meant that people shouldn’t blindly accept their comments. People should look at the facts and draw their own conclusions. All in all I think it is a great report and you did a good job summing it up.

I agree that people should get informed when they buy things. I guess I am more careful than the average person because I researched my TV purchase for a week before I bought. I don’t even plan on buying a home for a couple of years (depending on the market and what I want in life) and I have already started researching!

A friend from work told me he was looking for a place as he recently married. Him and his new wife both lived at home until that time. I asked him why he didnt rent for a while as he didnt even know if he wanted a 1 bedroom in Burnaby or a house in Langley. It is tough to tell what you want when you have only lived with family for your whole life. He thought renting was a waste of money. I sent him some facts, much like this report and advised he take his time as the first home is one of the biggest financial decisions in life. He said he read one or two and got rushed into buying a 4 bed townhouse in Surrey the next week. The developer (it was a new place) told him there was already 2 offers on the place but the financing didnt go through. He threw down his offer and moved in the next month.

Not to say he got ripped off, but I think rushing into a house purchase is something that is seen far too often these days. People spend more time Christmas shopping than house shopping.

Continuing, not to defend their position as a purveyor of financial instruments including mortgages, the business of being in a business of selling things for a profit in and of itself precludes saying to a customer in an outright manner – don’t buy this! That choice always remains within the domain of the customer. For the customer, being informed is the big hurdle. To that end once again I think, this report biased or otherwise, adds perspective.

Even though it may have vested interest coming from the bank I thought it one of the better over views of all the issues. Hopefully, others will see it in the same vein.

I guess the comments must be taken with a grain of salt (or a whole shaker full) because they make money off of people buying homes. While it would be very moral of them to say “dont use 35 year mortgages and plan for interest rates to double by the time you renew”, it wouldnt make a whole bunch of business sense. After all, the CMHC (taxpayers) assume all of the risk anyway.

Considering they want people to buy homes this report is really about as negative as they could get. They try to downplay the bad side with their comments but the facts speak for themselves. Pretty much everything is at an all time high, both real and nominal, so I dont see how any logical person could look at these numbers and not agree we are in a bubble and prices will have to come back down to norms at some point in the future.