36 Replies to “It’s Probably Nothing”

  2. An astute friend of mine commented about 18 months ago that the main determinant in the re election of the LPC will be the toronto housing market. A slump/crashes would doom them

  3. Gord, it might also cause the libs to run massive massive deficits to ensure the economy is stimulated enough to ensure they don’t lose votes in “vote rich” Ontario.

  4. The rapid rise in Cheranna prices never made sense anyways. I mean really, Toronto? Why? You can say why is anywhere expensive, rhetorically, but, everything being equal, who the Fock would want to live THERE?
    At least the west coast doesn’t have Wynne…….but the dippers will likely have a dampening effect on the market here too.

  7. Are the Trudeau/Wynne chickens beginning to come home to roost? Me thinks so.
    2015 Liberal Election Promise – Budget Surplus / (Debt)
    2016 – 2017 (9.9) billion
    2017 – 2018 (9.5) billion
    2018 – 2019 (5.7) billion
    2019 – 2020 +1.0 billion
    Total (24.1) billion
    2016 Liberal Actual / Forecast – Budget Surplus / (Debt)
    2016 – 2017 (23.0) billion actual
    2017 – 2018 (28.5) billion forecast
    2018 – 2019 (27.4) billion forecast
    2019 – 2020 (23.4) billion forecast
    Total (102.3) billion

  8. As long as they bring a 1/2 million foreigners into the country every year, the real estate sector would do just fine.

  9. As long as they bring a 1/2 million foreigners into the country every year, the real estate sector would do just fine.

  10. Jeez, that’s terrible news. I mean Toronto and the Province were splitting almost $33,000 in land transfer taxes on the sale of a $1 million dollar property. Whatever will they do to make up for this reduced revenue stream?

  11. Anyone with any sense and extra cash should be converting to USD. Political children are running Canada now, both federally and provincially. Voters, like those in Venezuela, are scrambling for their ‘rightful’ share of the pillage. When or if the realization materializes of what is inevitable it will be to late.

  13. Oh, for pity’s sake. You see a few months of decline on a chart, and assume that’s the way it’s going to go forever? Do you look at stock market charts and make predictions the same way?
    Ya, I know all the dicks in Western Canada hate Toronto, but here’s why I love living here:
    1 – Toronto has had one hurricane in the last 65 years, and one tornado. We had a bit of an ice storm three years back that slowed the city for a day. yes, we get winter, but so does most of Canada. All in all, the climate in Toronto isn’t bad compared to most other places in North America.
    2 – Quality of life. Chicago is a big bustling city with roughly the same climate and the same size as Toronto. It has over 600 murders a year; Toronto has about 1/10th of that. On a per capita basis, Toronto is safer than most cities in Canada (the most UNsafe cities, according to crime stats? Regina, followed by Saskatoon.. what is it about you prairie dogs?!) The Economist, a once good newsmagazine, reports that Toronto is the safest major city in North America.
    3 – Greenery. Get up in the CN tower, and look around – you see the commercial corridors going up Yonge and across Bloor, but for the most part, you see trees. We have a couple of concrete canyons, to be sure, but Toronto is still a city full of small parks and human scale development.
    4 – Culture. I am not happy about all the immigration, but Toronto has a lot of “pavilions at the folk fest” events that are fun. From the “Taste of the Danforth” to the Italian street festival on College to the Chinese celebrations, it seems there’s something new to investigate every week. And, getting back to point 2, it’s safe to visit these things.
    Are there things I don’t like about Toronto? Sure, the traffic is bad, and the city planners should be shot for suggesting things like “streetcar only” transit ways in the middle of urban streets. Taxes are high because idiot councillors think the city’s job is to right all the wrongs of the world, instead of sweeping streets and putting out fires. And of course, the Liberal latte drinkers all drive me nuts, but they have those in Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary too, don’t they?
    In the end, it’s voting with one’s feet. People keep moving to Toronto because they like what it provides. Sorry if that puts your noses out of joint.

  14. Junk stats like most of the real estate stats. The average selling price in every segment went up, but the average selling price went down? Why – because less detached were available for sale. In other words, anyone with the option took their money and ran in Q1 (I did) leaving no stock. Anyone who didn’t is holding until the market recovers, like Vancouver.

  15. Median family income in Toronto is less than $80K as of 2015 according to StatsCan. Yeah, it’s really smart to have an average family home running at 8x-10x that number, not a housing bubble, nosiree, nothing to see here, it’s different here than the States, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, move along, move along….
    But yeah, keep importing 1/2 million immigrants a year (with a significant number of them bringing hot Chinese money with them), and that’ll keep the market afloat. Until it doesn’t.
    I may live in a politically stupid part of the country, but at least I can afford my home without a mortgage up to my eyeballs.

  16. Toronto home prices falling? Down to what? Somebody wake me up when they get to only three times what the average family makes in a year.
    I looked at a tiny POS downtown near Dundas St. in the winter.
    It had ball and tube electrical still in spots.
    It had a CREEK running through the basement, actual moving water with ripples. Could have gone fishing.
    The roof was some kind of modern art installation, with stalactites of tar where the owner had tried valiantly to spend as little money as he possibly could.
    I decided I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. $300k for a -basic- reno, they’d have to rip it back to the brick and take the whole top off it. Probably more like $500k for a nice job.
    $1.4 million, my friends. There was a bidding war. Three story crack-house. $1.4M Two million bucks and two years before you can move in.
    Now, it should come as no surprise that fewer people are having anything to do with this foolishness. Who’s got two million bucks for a construction project? The answer is successful professionals/businessmen who need a place for their kids to live, and they need a place to hide their money from the taxman. Solution, invest two megabucks in a house, drop the kid in it, pay the kid a salary from your corporation that covers the mortgage. You can shield a fairly healthy bit of your annual income that way, plus you get the kid established on the real estate ladder. Otherwise they are going to be POOR all their lives.
    That’s the math that drives the Toronto housing market.
    So, what changed? The Liberals propose to end the tax “loophole” that allows people to hire their kids and spouses. Now, everybody is looking at their tax arrangements and saying “nope!” It no longer makes sense to buy the super expensive wreck for the kid.
    Just the threat of this tax hike is altering behavior. Before long, rich Chinese guys will be the -only- people buying houses in Toronto. A little 15% tax isn’t going to matter to them at all.
    Politically this is a remarkably boneheaded move by the Liberals. They’re going to wipe out a whole class of Liberal donors. Usually they are not this stupid. Justine is, but he’s a sock puppet. He decides nothing.
    I wonder if there’s as much off-shore money coming to Ottawa and Queens Park as it would take to replace all those Liberal supporting doctors and lawyers and real estate tycoons? There might be.

  18. Although the chart is simplified , it looks like blown-up top. One more wiggle to the upside and then the race down starts.

  19. Speaking of prices dropping…
    Apple share price dropped by almost $7 after their new ” face recognition” iphone failed in a public demonstration
    yahoo news UK seems to be the ONLY media reporting on this,
    it is a loss of over 35 BILLION US DOLLARS for Apple
    7 dollars times 5.17 billion shares is over 35 Billion US dollars of LOSS in value.
    I hate Apple – I especially hate the apple store which is one of the stupidest thing I have ever seen – so I’m very happy.
    Go to hell Apple, may you go bankrupt and go to HELL.

  20. The murder statistics in prairies are more lethal because the murder weapon is a 30-06. Very few attempted murders with a 30-06.

  22. I used to be an avid Apple user but not any more. The final straw for me came when I had problems with my G4 PowerMac and Apple refused to assist me because I had owned the machine for more than 5 years. Worse was that I couldn’t even get any spare parts for it.
    After that, I’ve used machines on which I’ve installed either Linux or FreeBSD. For most of them, I can do my own maintenance as I can usually get the replacement parts quite easily. Combine that with free downloadable operating systems, what’s not to like?
    I was attracted to Apple computers because of the hardware plus they were easier to use. The company, however, started drifting away from that about 20 years ago, emphasizing “cool” rather than functionality.
    By the way, I live near a shopping centre that has an Apple store and I agree with your observations. I’ve never set foot in it and I don’t intend to.

  23. I don’t know what the difference between Greater Toronto and just Toronto is, but real estate prices in just Toronto aren’t dropping by much. For example, April 2017 they averaged $817,000 and in August $790,000 for a drop of 3.3%. Also, there is a natural drop over the summer as April-May are prime buying times for families wanting to relocate before school restarts.
    People mistakenly compare housing prices to salary. It’s better to compare mortgage payments to salary as you can carry 3-4 times the mortgage amount at today’s interest rate compared to the 1990s. That mortgage of $200,000 costs the same amount as a $600,000 mortgage today and doesn’t even consider change in income.
    The big problem is not in Toronto but on the bordering towns where tear-downs are going for $400,000.
    http://www.trebhome.com/market_news/home_price_index/index.htm

  24. It seems that the single detached house is becoming the next target of the green theocracy, at least in a few of the largest cities. Our enlightened overlords prefer that we all live in concrete boxes stacked vertically. That is also what the market seems to be showing as Condos are now the hottest part of the Hogtown real estate market. Same in Vancouver. In Vancouver (lower mainland), it’s easy to see why as your choices are either an ultra-expensive detached home, less expensive homes and an awful commute, or a less expensive pack and stalk condo.

  25. Thank goodness, there are better places to live in BC than the Lower Mainland. That place is a congested hellhole, but, like Toronto centric folks, the LM is the centre of the world, out here.

  26. I fear Jerry Brown is bringing this to California … real soon. A bankrupt state and unfunded pensions about to explode in new taxes. The people are tapped-out … but will be tapped for more. Including all the green taxes collected by PG&E and at the pump. Liberalism is the most self-destructive force on the planet.

  28. “People keep moving to Toronto because they like what it provides.”
    Toronto: old Huron word meaning “big teepee full of crying papoose”.

  29. This is the city that would reelect Bob Rae. This is the city that WILL reelect Wynne. This is the city that WILL reelect Trudeau. This is the city, that only western separation can save us from.
    So who cares. What I care about is that the “Saskatchewan” party cares more about confederation than Saskatchewan. I don’t see any indication that will change.
    The word Canada means “Ontario and Quebec”.

  30. Why not? It is such a “privilege” to own a home … to scrape and save a down-payment, make faithful mortgage payments, pay utilities and taxes, and maintain your property …
    And we have now been recently informed, that all PRIVILEGE must PAY … the “under privileged” … reparations. SCREW the children of competent citizens. Why should they PROFIT from the good decisions, discipline, and faithfulness of their parents?
    EAT THE RICH !!! To the barricades, mon ami !!

  31. “Anyone with any sense and extra cash should be converting to USD. ”
    Ah no they should not because the US is being run by worse. That is probably why the USD has been weakening as of late.
    Immigration doesn’t drive housing prices higher. It didn’t in the ’90s. Housing prices started moving up in 2000, when the USD became unmoored. Also, constrictions on housing supply are another huge problem.

  32. Unme is retarded it’s official.
    The usd was unmoored in 1972 idiot!
    And yes immigration ENMASS to the tune of 400k / year for almost 3 decades drives the cost of everything up except one thing it actually drives one thing down …..unme can you guess what it is?
    NOPE not your IQ that’s in the negatives already since birth.
    It drives down wages just apply basic economics supply and demand.
    400/immigrants on top of regular birth rates equals housing shortages and higher demands on social services….on the flip side it also saturates many many labour markets like trucking, welding, framing, mc jobs, and all the other blue collar and lower jobs because a massive over supply of unskilled and skilled labour creates market saturation driving wages down …..at the same time if the market does not support the massive influx of say for example long haul truckers the wages get pushed down and social services are used e.i./welfare /gov funded retraining ect ect…..not all immigration is bad and our system is decent actually it’s really good but we are bringing in WAAAAAYYYYY. To many immigrants . We need a moratorium for about 2 decades then open it up to about 2-25k/ year and tie that to economic strength if we have a strong economy and things are great we can bring in 25k/year or more through temporary high skill visas n stuff…. and the flip side is if we have an economic down turn we reduce or stop immigration and cancel visas …..
    Canadians first .

  33. “The usd was unmoored in 1972 idiot! ”
    Then put back on gold by Volcker. Yes, in the ’80s it became official fed policy to maintain a price target for the USD in terms of gold back. This was the reason for a lot of the prosperity that came. Then Bush and Greenspan killed the USD stability in the year 2000-ish. The rest is history.
    “And yes immigration ENMASS to the tune of 400k / year for almost 3 decades drives the cost of everything up except ”
    Citation needed.
    “400/immigrants on top of regular birth rates equals housing shortages and higher demands on social services….on the flip side it also saturates many many labour markets”
    STFU. You don’t understand economics in the slightest. Just piss off and let smarter people (the ones who aren’t dumb enough to think there’s a fixed number of jobs to be divvied up) do the talking.

  34. Oh look an SDA peon that doesn’t know what it’s talking about, and thinks immigrants TERK R JERBS. Never seen that before.
    “The usd was unmoored in 1972 idiot! ”
    It was remoored under Volker in the ’80s. USD-gold exchange stability was official fed policy. Then in 2000 that fell apart.
    “And yes immigration ENMASS to the tune of 400k / year for almost 3 decades drives the cost of everything up”
    Citation needed.
    “400/immigrants on top of regular birth rates equals housing shortages and higher demands on social services….on the flip side it also saturates many many labour markets”
    Just STFU already and let smarter people (ie the ones who aren’t stupid enough to believe there’s a fixed number of jobs to divvy up) do the talking.

  35. Oh look! An SDA peon who thinks immigrants TERK R JERBS.
    “The usd was unmoored in 1972 idiot! ”
    And then remoored under Volcker. It was official fed policy to have a stable price of gold in USD. Then in 2000 they fell off the wagon.
    “And yes immigration ENMASS to the tune of 400k / year for almost 3 decades drives the cost of everything ”
    Citation needed.
    “00/immigrants on top of regular birth rates equals housing shortages and higher demands on social services….on the flip side it also saturates many many labour markets”
    Just STFU and step aside for people who actually know what they are talking about ie people who know there isn’t some pie of jobs to be divvied up.

  36. all true KB.
    except it takes a month of sundays to get anywhere in hogtown.
    I love the restaurants esp chinatown and the entertainment, but scaREW living there.

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