Canadian Capitalist

A friend of mine asked me if he should get a fixed rate or floating rate mortgage. When we purchased our house about four years ago, we opted for a five-year, fixed-rate mortgage and in the past four years, the variable, below-prime mortgage rate has never been above our fixed rate of 5.25%. The Bank [...]

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The astounding rise in prices of residential real estate, especially in Western markets has coincided with the introduction of interest-only mortgages (no principal payment for an introductory period) and mortgages with long amortizations of 30 and 35 years. Today’s Financial Post carried a story on how eroding housing affordability is making these mortgage products popular.
Just [...]

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According to The Canadian Real Estate Association, the price of an average resale home hit a record $303,836 in May 2006, up a stunning 12.9% from the year-ago period. The hottest markets were out west with Vancouver up 24%, Calgary up 44% and Edmonton (Go Oilers! Go!) up 23%. The increase was much more sedate [...]

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Just like the debate on RRSPs versus mortgage paydown (check the comments to the previous post), the debate on whether a personal residence is an asset or liability pops up every now and then. The reason the debate endures is that both sides have valid arguments:
Asset:

Everyone needs a roof over their head and a house [...]

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AllThingsFinancial started a meme about how much real estate can be bought for $300,000 (USD). Responses range from a tiny studio in Manhattan (with doubts about the existence of a washroom) to a palatial 3814 sq. ft. home in Indianapolis.

Houses in Canada’s Capital City tend to fall somewhere between the two extremes. After a [...]

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RE/MAX forecasts that home prices across Canada will rise modestly in 2006.

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There is even more discussion about the real estate bubble, especially since Fed Chair Alan Greenspan warned of housing “froth”. SmartMoney magazine recently ran a bull vs. bear debate on the topic. The bulls make the familiar argument of low interest rates, strong demand, low inventory levels, limited land supply etc. The bears, on the [...]

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Fellow blogger Ben Jones consistently argues in his The Housing Bubble blog that a real estate bubble in housing prices can be found not only in the United States but also in many countries around the world. I’ve made earlier posts about the bubble and what I intend to do about it?
I wanted to take [...]

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In my previous post, I wrote about a possible housing bubble, signs of which seem to be everywhere. Just last week, I saw an ad for real estate investing in The Ottawa Citizen that started with a Frankin D. Roosevelt quote: “Real estate is about the safest investment in the world”. So, assuming that a [...]

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Fellow blogger Ben Jones writes a blog dedicated to the housing mania sweeping the globe. For Exhibit A, check out this LA Times story and Ben’s comments on it. I can’t believe that someone would cash in their retirement funds to buy a piece of land that produces no income solely based on the “greater [...]

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