RBC Housing Trends and Affordability Report

[trent]

RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) just published their Housing Trends and Affordability Report for December 2008.

The report confirms what many Canadians already know, that the housing market in Canada is in correction mode and that the real estate in many major cities like Vancouver and Toronto is way overvalued and unaffordable even after steep sales and price declines.

Here is the link to the report:

http://www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/house.pdf

[Canadian]

Thanks for stating the obvious Royal Bank . It's funny how just a few months back, nobody here in Canada was considering the possibility of a serious housing downturn and now everybody acts surprised. The bubble didn't happen overnight folks, and it won't fully deflate for a long time.

[investor]

I am not surprised by this report. The real estate market is going down in US and Europe. How do you think in Canada will be any different? We are in recession and the prices are going down.

[Jason]

I'm interested in buying a semi-detached house in midtown Toronto, but the prices still too high in my opinion. I have a steady job and a good income, but spending half a million dollars for a house doesn't seem reasonable to me.

My question is how far do you think this Toronto housing correction will go? Would it be possible to see a house priced $500,000 now in the mid $300,000 in 2 years, or am I dreaming?

[bullish]

Originally Posted by Jason

I'm interested in buying a semi-detached house in midtown Toronto, but the prices still too high in my opinion. I have a steady job and a good income, but spending half a million dollars for a house doesn't seem reasonable to me.

My question is how far do you think this Toronto housing correction will go? Would it be possible to see a house priced $500,000 now in the mid $300,000 in 2 years, or am I dreaming?

You are expecting a correction of around 30%, and this will never happen.

[Zephyr]

Originally Posted by bullish

You are expecting a correction of around 30%, and this will never happen.

But it happened in the opposite direction - think about it, the prices rose sooo much that inevitably there will be a correction. I personally am not happy about it because I have mortgage but this is what I think will happen

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by bullish

You are expecting a correction of around 30%, and this will never happen.

It will happen big time, and it can be even more. What goes up, must come down . The market doubled in a few short years and you are saying that it's not possible to correct 30% (this will wipe out just 60% of the gains since 2000-2001)? I think you are simply naive or in a denial.

[bronto18]

Originally Posted by Canadian

It will happen big time, and it can be even more. What goes up, must come down . The market doubled in a few short years and you are saying that it's not possible to correct 30% (this will wipe out just 60% of the gains since 2000-2001)? I think you are simply naive or in a denial.

There will be correction but in the long run real estate always goes up and I think it the most secure investment.

[Jason]

Hopefully TREB will release their mid-December report for Toronto today and we'll find out if thing are getting better or worse.

[Ranana_veitty]

Does anyone have any info on the housing projects in Needham. Looking into buying a house there, but its close to the projects. Are they bad? Will it lower the re-sale value?
Thanks