The industry is rife with reports of a pending housing correction ... but how accurate are they?
Video transcript below:
Justin Da Rose, Mortgage Broker News
Justin Da Rosa: The mainstream media is rife with stories about a potential housing crash and, but not everybody is sold. If there is one however, then you wonder how deep it will go.
Paul Therein, VP, Operations, Centum Financial Group Inc.
Paul Therein: Is there potential for one? Of course there is, but they are all leases. Realistically speaking, housing is built on basis of supply and demand same as any consumer good is, because that’s what housing is, consumer good. So as long as there are consumers that are willing to pay the price that a home is listed for, that home won’t correct and a lot of those factors are derived out of many different things. So economic stability, unemployment levels, all of those things.
Reporter: Well a threat of a housing crash and there is certainly a possibility, one industry player suggests the level of starts and completions is the key to assessing the health of the market.
Ben Myers, Senior VP, Market Research, Fortress Real Developments
Ben Myers: Yeah, I don’t think there is any correction happening in the, certainly in Ontario housing market, you know resale numbers came out across the country and several of the large markets, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto are all having positive returns especially in low rise housing. We are not seeing the same levels of appreciation in the condominium market, but it’s still very positive.
I don’t think we are in for a correction of any sorts. The things I look out for is, is the level of start to completion that are scheduled well above historical norms and in most markets they are not. Maybe, maybe Winnipeg is the only market where you are seeing a lot more starts than you have in previous, but certainly for Ontario we are actually building less than we have in previous years, right. That’s certainly something that I look out for.
