The largest sub-prime lender in the world is now the Canadian government.'
What do the mid-recession housing boom and the Harper Conservatives' rise in the polls have in common? Answer: the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's massive sub-prime mortgage scheme that is keeping up the appearance of an economic recovery. Reading the newspapers these days, you have to wonder whether Canada was on another planet when the global credit crisis hit. House prices have actually increased in some provinces and now there is a shortage of houses for sale in southern Ontario. Credit is flowing everywhere.
But what few Canadians realize is that the housing market has avoided collapse (prices are down 32 per cent in the U.S.) because the Harper Conservatives directed the CMHC to change the mortgage rules to effectively make the Canadian government the biggest sub-prime lender in the world.
LINK HERE
More Graphs for the Canadians and Housing Collapse Info
LINK HERE
Canuck doom
ReplyDeletea disaster unfolding before our very eyes.how can buyers be so detached from economic realities.
ReplyDeleteThe story oozes with dirty Canadian politics of finger pointing - Believing the Tyee is your first problem!!!
ReplyDeleteThe CMHC only puts down 5% and the bank makes you get insurance just incase you default. The bank calls your employer to verify the facts. Vancouver has less then 1% rental vacancy rate - why, because people can't qualify for a mortgage. My renter makes over $50k with no debt and he can only qualify for $175k from the bank.
You can not compare Vancouver to Moncton - there are too many differences which come out in price. My $900K would cost you $300K in Winnipeg, etc. So the national stats are nonsence.
So, it is not as bad as the "Tyee" says.
8:52 Garth Turner is saying the same thing as well as NUMEROUS other blogs. Get your head out of the sand, you're beginning to sound like an MSN subscriber
ReplyDeleteGarth Turner?!?!?!?!? Please don't start quoting him.....yes things are bad, but every situation is different.
ReplyDeleteMSN subscriber? geepers.
It's all part of the plan.
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening in the USA today will be happening in canada in a year or two.
Then the economies of the USA,Canada and Mexico will be 'harmonized' into one big frothy pot of mess. This will allow the ushering in of the alternative currency the 'Amero' , right on schedule.
I wonder if the canadian readership is really up on the 'progress' of the SPP and the NAU.
@5:55
ReplyDeleteI do not think they are. I moved back to Canada from the States and every person I talk to is aware of what is going on in the States, but they sincerely believe that Canada is immune to these problems. But if I ask them what's the reason the laws of economics and physics do not apply to this one selected country, they start on the reasons that I used to hear in the States from their delusional citizenry.
12:52 I live in Vancouver and hear it all day. Delusional fantasy at its greatest. Its different here, they state. Yes its different because it will fall harder, faster and deeper. Canadians per capita are in debt more than Americans.
ReplyDeleteI think Dobbins confuses the issue when he says, "Sub-prime is any loan below prime". Sub-prime refers to the creditworthiness of the borrower, and nothing to do with the prime interest rate. Hence, all sub-prime loans are not created equal. Unlike the US, you cannot get a mortgage in Canada if you are a welfare bum, an illegal alien, drug-dealing pimp or a career criminal with 15 illegitimate featherless bipeds. So it's not the same thing. Many people make this mistake. And since lending standards were entirely different, I believe he is being disengenuous when he tries to equate the actions of the CMHC with the US' NINJA loans to minorities which caused the meltdown in the first place. 5% down on a modest home with a relatively good credit score in Canada isn't the same time-bomb to the economy as the no income, no job, no assetts (and no brains) affirmative-action type loans in the US.
ReplyDelete4:05 are you ever wrong. Perhaps you have never been an agent or a lender. When you witness the number of people getting 400,000 mortgages in CANADA, with 35 year amortized mortgages, like i have, NOTHING will turn out different. With payments in excess of $2000 a month today, imagine when rates double? The US subprime crisis also included people with money, credit, jobs just like CANADA. Stop being so naive nothing is DIFFERENT, just TIME is...
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