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I have three questions regarding home ownership in Toronto as well as throughout the rest of Canada.
1)---Has the percentage of Canadians who own their own homes been pretty consistent and level over the past 20-25 years? As many of you know, blatant government intervention in the US housing market sent the percentage of homes owned in this country up substantially in the early nineties (at one point it was around 69%), which eventually led to the crash of the mid-2000s, which was horrendous here in many parts of Los Angeles as well as nationwide.
2)---Underwriting standards were essentially gutted in order to allow people with substandard credit to buy houses here. Has that ever been the case in Canada?
3)---For those of you who've lived in any major US city as well as Toronto, are homes in Toronto's nicest areas comparable in price to LA's ($650K+), or another major US city that you're familiar with?
1. I would say yes, but don't have stats to prove it. I'm sure they can be found on Google.
2. NO!
3. $650K doesn't buy you much house in Toronto anymore. a post war bungalow of about 1000 sq ft is between $500K and $700K and in certain areas that doesn't even give you a driveway.
I was a realtor there for 18 years up until 2002 but still have my finger in the pie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marv101
I have three questions regarding home ownership in Toronto as well as throughout the rest of Canada.
1)---Has the percentage of Canadians who own their own homes been pretty consistent and level over the past 20-25 years? As many of you know, blatant government intervention in the US housing market sent the percentage of homes owned in this country up substantially in the early nineties (at one point it was around 69%), which eventually led to the crash of the mid-2000s, which was horrendous here in many parts of Los Angeles as well as nationwide.
2)---Underwriting standards were essentially gutted in order to allow people with substandard credit to buy houses here. Has that ever been the case in Canada?
3)---For those of you who've lived in any major US city as well as Toronto, are homes in Toronto's nicest areas comparable in price to LA's ($650K+), or another major US city that you're familiar with?
The US housing market is generally more affordable than in Canada, especially regarding Toronto and Vancouver. The average home price for a desirable location, and nice house is 1mill+ if you want to be near the city. But for the nicest..... In Toronto you're looking closer to 2mill.....
If you're middle class in Toronto and you want to own, you own a condo, not a house. Houses are only affordable for the upper middle class and rich. The only middle class people in Toronto who still own houses are the ones who bought them years ago. Of course, you can still afford a house if you live way out in the suburbs in a place like Oshawa.
So what exactly has caused real estate prices in Toronto to skyrocket over the past 10, 20 or more years? I know it's a very desirable and cosmopolitan city, and assuming that it hasn't been ravaged by rampant environmental extremism and reams of regulations as has all of California, why are the RE prices so insane?
Although I haven't been back since 1996, I had no idea that your real estate prices have gone through the roof since then.
Toronto's a fantastic city in every sense of the word, and gets my vote any day of the week over any major US city, and certainly Chicago.
So what exactly has caused real estate prices in Toronto to skyrocket over the past 10, 20 or more years? I know it's a very desirable and cosmopolitan city, and assuming that it hasn't been ravaged by rampant environmental extremism and reams of regulations as has all of California, why are the RE prices so insane?
Supply and demand, plain and simple. That's what creates market conditions everywhere (including crashes).
Everyone thought there would have been a market correction in TO by now but there hasn't been, and it may not happen. There is talk of the market softening but I bet Sept. brings about more frenzied buying.
Supply and demand, plain and simple. That's what creates market conditions everywhere (including crashes).
Everyone thought there would have been a market correction in TO by now but there hasn't been, and it may not happen. There is talk of the market softening but I bet Sept. brings about more frenzied buying.
Partially, but you can't deny that there's been a huge run up in prices across the country. In large part, sustained llow interest rates, the fact that real estate is essentially the only tax haven we've got in this country, and foreign money from across the world has fueled something of a property bubble in Canada. So it's a combination of a legitimate run up in market demand and a property bubble. Also doesn't hurt that all of the investment in high density urban housing, as opposed to sprawl, has led to higher critical masses of population that have made the cities that had the bubble legitimately more interesting, which raises the prices in these cities because they're actually improved. Some would say it's been negative change because making the cores more residential means they're more attractive to residents but less attractive for other uses that people outside the core would come to, but regardless it does boost property prices and makes the cities more appealing to foreign money.
Also, traffic's gotten really bad in most of Canada's cities, so living closer to the core and giving up space is becoming more popular then it used to, which also means higher prices since land comes to be at more of premium.
There was an article in the WSJ several weeks ago which described how many Canadians have been streaming into the Phoenix/Scottsdale area to buy real estate as if there were no tomorrow, since so much of it is dirt cheap.
I'm not surprised that real estate in your exhilirating city is in such great demand; Toronto's been my favorite city in North America for well over 25 years.
No sub-prime loans in Canada. Lending practices are very conservative, because banks are leveraged at a much lower ratio than in the US or even much of Europe (before the crash). And I'm not an expert, but as I recall, mortgage debts must be carried by the bank that issues them, they can't be repackaged and sold off to other banks, especially to other banks in other countries
The US housing market is generally more affordable than in Canada, especially regarding Toronto and Vancouver. The average home price for a desirable location, and nice house is 1mill+ if you want to be near the city. But for the nicest..... In Toronto you're looking closer to 2mill.....
Not just a little but a lot. Canadians are coming in droves to by property in the US, especially the near-retirees. They are the winners in all this. They bought in Toronto 20-30 yrs ago. Now, they are selling their home to some young sucker in Toronto, and they buy a a foreclosure or foreclosures in Florida, Arizona, Nevada, or California.
US foreclosures can go for as little as $5K. It is harder to get financing in the USA, so cash is king.
Obviously, the low-priced homes will need some sweat equity and possible a guard dog. Last time I checked in Toronto, even the run-down homes are selling for $300-500K. The rundown homes in the nice parts of Toronto go for $1M+.
Money does not get you much house in Toronto.
The snow-birds can still use the provincial healthcare system, so its a win-win for them.
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