Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

[Starving Steve]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

and they are not building anymore land up in Canada, better get in now before it is too late.

Canada is short of land just like Canada is short of snow and ice. And people believe this! ( Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the urban planners, among others across Canada actually do believe this. )

A great article which you may google was posted Jan 25, 2010 in The Canadian Press. The article was written by John Cotter. Google: "New report says urban land development policies making homes unaffordable."

If any students might be reading this, especially in Canada, you might think about organizing a sit-in at your local or regional planning agency--- because you kids are going to have to pay the outrageous cost of housing (or rent) in Canadian cities when you get your first job after you leave college. Good luck!

[Starving Steve]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

We had Olympics protestors arrested in Vancouver on Sunday, Feb 14th for damaging private property and rioting. Instead of protesting the Olympics, why weren't these protestors protesting the cost of living in BC, especially the cost of housing in Vancouver? Thus, why weren't these same protestors protesting British Columbia's outrageously restrictive urban development policies? These protestors should have directed their protest squarely against urban planners, and not the Olympic games.:rolleyes:

[Slimprofits]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

Hey Steve, was the black bloc made up of real protesters this time around or was it predominantly cops again?

You know the old saying. Fool me once...



***

Church Report - Book II - D. USING COVERT ACTION TO DISRUPT AND DISCREDIT DOMESTIC GROUPS

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

Hey GRG or anyone else, what do you think about shorting Genworth MIC Canada?

[Fiat Currency]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

... The CMHC is an arm of Mark Carney - err - I meant the Goverment. Last time I checked, they held over $150B in MBS on their balance sheet.

A couple of years ago we were peeking at the CMHC and their impact on Canada's housing market.

Last week the CMHC hit its limit of (hold your hat) $600B in insured mortgages. The CMHC's #1 "competitor" Genworth holds almost another $250B.

To put that number in Canuck-perspective ... The entire Federal debt of Canada is $581B.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle2385474/

TD chief backs Ottawa’s mortgage tightening

The federal government is stepping up oversight of the mortgage market, which the head of Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD-T84.32-0.34-0.40%)believes is a good idea given the ripple effect a collapse in housing prices would have across the Canadian economy.

Speaking in New York at TD’s annual meeting Thursday, chief executive officer Ed Clark said he supports the government’s plan to cap the amount of mortgages banks are allowed to insure through Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Although TD uses the CMHC insurance program more than any Canadian bank, with as much as 70 per cent of its mortgages insured by Ottawa, Mr. Clark said he doesn’t think the CMHC’s program needs to be expanded beyond its current $600-billion limit, even though the banking sector risks hitting that ceiling.

Canadian banks have been insuring their mortgages through the CMHC at rapidly increasing rates in recent years, forcing Ottawa to progressively increase the cap until now. “A $600-billion cap, that’s a pretty big number relative to the size of Canada,” Mr. Clark said. “I’m sympathetic to the government to say that there’s just got to be a limit here. Because a good thing can become a bad thing by having too much of anything.”

His comments came as the federal government released its 2012 budget and stated plans to enhance its “oversight framework” for CMHC, while pressing ahead with legislation for covered bonds, which the banks use to fund their mortgage lending.

Although Finance Minister Jim Flaherty provided no details on what Ottawa intends to do with CMHC, the banking sector has been bracing for tighter lending rules as the government and regulators fret about rising debt levels in Canada and the possibility of an overheated housing market.

Should the banks be forced to ration how many mortgages they insure through the government, it could result in higher borrowing costs of about 0.20 percentage points, Mr. Clark said. “It will obviously raise the cost of borrowing,” he said.

Although the CMHC allows banks to seek shelter from a sudden drop in housing prices or an uptick in loan defaults, Mr. Clark said he believes the broader economy would be blindsided if a downturn of that nature happened, which would hurt the banks as well. The CMHC would have to dip into its profits to absorb the blow.

But cooling the market has its benefits, he said. “What I’ve been saying is, look around the world, you don’t want to get your housing market so overinflated that when the bubble bursts, you [cause] a whole set of collateral damage in the economy,” Mr. Clark said. “Then every bank in Canada is going to be [hit]. And its not just the banks. The population is going to pay the price.”

At the annual meeting, Mr. Clark also said he intends to remain as CEO of TD for at least a few more years after turning 65 later this year. TD intends to find his successor within its own ranks, the bank said.

Leading up to Thursday’s federal budget, there was speculation Mr. Flaherty might look to tweak the mortgage market by reducing the maximum amortization on mortgages insured by CMHC to 25 years from 30 years. Ottawa reduced the level from 35 years in early 2011 in a bid to rein in the lending market.

Bank of Montreal said it has been encouraging 25-year amortizations over 30-year loans through its offers to customers, and said the government didn’t necessarily need to move. Four of every 10 new insured mortgages at BMO have amortizations of 25 years or less, the bank said.

“We know that Minister Flaherty knows when to tap the brakes,” said Frank Techar, head of Canadian retail banking at BMO. “Banks have all the tools they need to help customers borrow smartly … [We have] been actively encouraging homeowners to choose shorter amortizations.”

[Starving Steve]

Re: Socialist Canadian Housing Market Surges Safely Ahead

One of the things that has driven-up housing prices in Canada and has made for the continent's worst housing (outside of San Francisco) is the over-regulation of urban development. Part of this over-regulation is restricting the extension of water & sewer pipes into the countryside and beyond the arbitrary boundary of urban development. This absolutely insane policy is done in the name of, "preventing urban sprawl". <----- One can thank these environmental lunatics of our time for this kind of city planning.

So the result of restricting water/sewer services is that the number of available serviced lots is limited. That drives-up land prices, and high ( usually outrageous ) land prices drive-up subdivision lot prices, and outrageous lot prices drive-up house prices.... Oh, this is insane, but this is Canada.

If your want to see some of the absolute worst and ugliest city development, look at Winnipeg, and where the front-footages of house lots can be as small as 25 front-feet. I have witnessed some Winnipeg 25-foot wide lots becoming as narrow as 18 front-feet, especially in street turns and bends, culdasacs, etc.

Four terrible results emerge from this high density planning: a.) outrageous house prices; b.) modern-day slums with traffic congestion and grid-lock, too; c.) land speculation around the perimetre of the city; d.) bribes paid by land speculators to the city government, including to the City Council and to the City Planning Department, sometimes even to the City Engineering Department, and sometimes even to the Provincial Municipal Affairs Department. In point d) above, the bribes are paid because the profits in land speculation are fabulous --- i.e, to re-zone almost worthless agricultural wheat-land and to make it serviced and subdivided land for immediate housing construction, and to develop without competition from other subdivisions and from other developers.

Many years ago, I worked for a few years for the City of Winnipeg. There, I uncovered one of these land speculation-and-bribe kind of deals. Upon uncovering the deals by searching through the records of the Wpg Assessment Department and through searching land titles and transfers over at the Land Title Office of the Manitoba Government--- and they were published, by the way, in the city's newspaper, The Winnipeg Free Press--- my desk was moved out of the Wpg Planning Department and brought downstairs and placed into the furnace room of the building. For several weeks, the furnace, the building's boiler, the building's hot-water pipes and I became good friends.

People often ask me why I became a coin dealer.....

Starving Steve