This means that a lot of would - be buyers will be facing
high housing prices as they attempt to enter the market.
While it is a favourite among income buyers, it's still a relatively inexpensive sector thanks to worries
around higher housing prices and slower loan growth.
Of course, you can always argue that
high housing prices merely reflect the fact that a lot of people want to live in a community.
Recent events likely resulted in an increase in mortgage fraud as
higher housing prices tempted borrowers to commit fraud for property in order to qualify for a mortgage loan.
A year ago, as the #Don «tHave1Million campaign highlighted the negative effects of
high house prices in the Lower Mainland, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said, «You've got to be careful about intervening, about having the state intervene to try and regulate pricing or depress pricing.»
Those who wind up in lower paying jobs after school — or who live in areas of the country
with high housing prices — may struggle for decades to save enough money to buy a home.
Above all, the Conservatives have a progressive trump card in the shape of their education policy, which could smash the middle - class opportunity hoarding made possible
by high house prices in the catchment areas of the best schools.
Nonetheless, Canadians trying to imagine how a broad economic downturn could play out should pay attention to what's happening on the Prairies,
where high house prices, soaring personal debt levels and an unexpected wave of job losses proved to be a toxic mix.
A parade of reports and experts explained
away high house prices and debt levels with many of the same arguments we hear today in Canada — yes, prices are way up compared to rents, but the analysis is built on flawed data; debt levels are high, but so are house prices, which minimizes the risk; America's demographics support the boom; and then the classic: There'll be a soft landing.
The stricter residential mortgage lending regulations introduced by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions were aimed at reducing risk in the market
amid high housing prices.
With respect to the second part of your question, when we think about vulnerability, if you take the combination of
really high house prices and then people who are in that market who have taken on very large mortgages relative to their incomes, whether that translates into a risk that crystalizes, that matters, really depends on if prices start growing more slowly as opposed to fall outright.
This poses a challenge for Beijing, which is trying to prop up its flagging economy and at the same time diminish the threat of a resurgence of
unsustainably high housing prices.
The concerns
about high housing prices and overstretched borrowers seemingly had no effect on Canada's five biggest banks: the Bank of Montreal (BMO), the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Toronto - Dominion Bank (TD)- Canada Trust.
High house price states, such as California and Florida, therefore tend to have a greater incidence of non-prime mortgages (Graph 2).
In particular, renovation activity has been strong and is likely to remain so, with many households electing to renovate rather than move,
given high house prices and transaction costs.
Thornberry's constituency falls within the London Borough of Islington, one of the most deprived areas of the country with
disproportionately high house prices and private sector rents.
High house prices combined with moderate incomes are holding Toronto back on MoneySense's Best Places to Live in Canada 2013 list.
Last month, Canada's federal housing agency
found high house prices in the Toronto area have been spilling over into nearby cities like Hamilton, Barrie and Guelph, and even to farther - flung areas such as the St. Catharines - Niagara region.
Canadians who are just joining the workforce or have been there for a little while are finding it difficult to buy a home because of mortgage regulation and
sky high house prices.
«If mortgage rates should move higher, then that just erodes affordability further in those markets that have had very rapid price growth and those markets that have
very high house prices,» said Nothaft.
However, if introduced carefully, these measures could help in areas that suffer
unreasonably high house prices in comparison to the average income for first and second - time buyers.
«Thanks to very low mortgage rates, monthly mortgage payments are affordable for the average household despite
currently high house prices,» says Sean Becketti, chief economist at Freddie Mac.
«According to the National Association of REALTORS ®, supply is at its lowest level since 1999, a factor that should support
higher house prices regardless of the oscillations of the mortgage rate.»
«This borrowing is underpinned
by high house prices, which allow homeowners to raise finance against part of their property's value that is unencumbered by a mortgage.
In British Columbia,
where high housing prices have kept some buyers out of the market in recent years, 92 per cent of potential first - time buyers are now motivated by low interest rates and 96 per cent say lower home prices are likely to prompt them to buy.
Angus Reid, in its June 2015 survey, Lotusland Blues, asked survey participants which factors they thought were the main causes of
high housing prices in Vancouver — two - thirds (64 %) chose foreigners investing in Vancouver's real estate market as a main cause.
On the other hand, critics have blamed the Aussie rules for contributing to a boom in unsightly condo towers aimed at foreign investors while doing little to bring sky -
high house prices in cities like Sydney and Melbourne back down to Earth.
Going forward this community will probably attract more families fleeing Vancouver's
high housing prices, says Myron.
Hawaiians face a higher cost of living than residents of any other state, as well as
the highest housing prices in the U.S..
S&P says it believes that
high house prices and household debt relative to household disposable income increase incentives for fraud such as overstating income in order to meet a lender's qualifying criteria.
This brings me to a third plot line: that is, how we deal with the higher level of household debt and
higher housing prices, especially in a world of more normal interest rates.
I believe that Canada's
high house prices in relation to incomes, combined with record household debt levels and overinvestment in residential construction, will cause a severe correction in the real estate market.