TagHousing affordability

Canada Housing disaster 2025: The Great Canadian Shell Game

If you’ve been waiting for a miracle in the Canadian housing market, I hope you like waiting. Despite the “bold” headlines coming out of Ottawa and the provinces, the average Canadian is still getting squeezed until the pips squeak.

I thought it was time to do an annual review on how our governments performed in 2025 regarding the housing shortage crisis. The quick assessment? It is a failure of math, policy, and will.

We’ve had a new budget, a new “housing czar” approach from the Federal Government, and a lot of expensive-looking agencies. But let’s look at the numbers—because the numbers don’t lie, even if the politicians do.

Posted April 22, 2024 Finance

Housing crisis.. Made in Canada

It’s really not that complicated. If you really want to resolve the housing crisis you just need to do these FIVE things

1. Bring back 35 year amortization periods and increase qualifying home prices to $1,250,000 or higher.
2.Remove rent control rules.
3.Halt new immigration until we can build up enough support services to handle what we have already. *(exception below)
4.Cut back on the municipal, provincial gov’t Red Tape to build any type of residential housing and that includes purpose built rental apartment buildings.
5.Create a hiring program to entice and incentivize people to get into skilled trades …and bring over people from outside Canada if you have to (this would be my exception to point 2 above)
Do this and you’ll soon have more housing units available than you could even dream of. It could be done in 3 to 5 years. It’s just not that complicated.

Posted March 26, 2019 Interest rates

Why are We Being Poorly Advised Against Homeownership?

Something strange has been going on over the past decade. We’re often being told – and, in many cases, convinced – that it’s better to rent than to own.

I firmly believe everyone should own their home. In fact, I think we should own at least one investment property… and, in many cases, more than one, but I’ll get to that in a minute…

I can understand why many people, particularly Millennials, are believing it’s better to rent than own. After all, it’s easier to rent. Just look online for a condo or house for rent. Apply, sign the lease and you’re done. We’ll call this the Convenience factor.

Continue reading “Why are We Being Poorly Advised Against Homeownership?”

Posted June 19, 20186 Comments Mortgage News

Real Estate Rebounds in June as Expected!

Earlier this year, I voiced my disagreement with the real estate pessimists who said a real estate crash or bubble was forming. Click here to read more.

This same more positive outlook is backed up by CMHC’s latest Housing Market Insight report for Ontario courtesy of regional economist Ted Tsiakopoulos.

Below are some key highlights from CMHC’s report:

Continue reading “Real Estate Rebounds in June as Expected!”

Posted April 24, 20181 Comment Mortgage News

REAL facts on Housing Prices… they’re not dropping like you may think!

In recent months, we’ve seen the mainstream media publish several stats and articles about Canada’s declining real estate market.

The popular stories go something like this: Home sales fall by 22%; or Home prices drop by 10%. Does that sound familiar? Bad news grabs our attention. It’s human nature.

Now, for a dose of reality…

It’s true, there are fewer home sales when compared to last year’s crazy red-hot housing market. In 2017, home sales and home prices were up 20% and 25% in the first four months of the year. That pace is unsustainable. We don’t ever want to match that pace. Continue reading “REAL facts on Housing Prices… they’re not dropping like you may think!”