According to a recent press release by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the number of new listings of homes for sale in Canada have reached an all time high of 80,147 units in the month of July, up 1.4 per cent from June. Whilst the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba recorded the most growth activity, new listing levels in Alberta fell from the all time high earlier in March.
It appears the increase in the stock levels of Canadian property is attributed to home owners’ rushing to take advantage of Canada’s currently high house prices by putting their homes on the market in the hope for a quick profit.
Although this is not a property glut situation, more units in the Canadian housing market indicates more choice and options for prospective buyers, making it more of a a buyers’ market at the moment.
Buyer should be cautious that the national statistics do not not hold true in all provinces. In Alberta for instance, where house prices have slightly fallen, new listings have been on a decline from April to July 2008.
Read the CREA press release for more information on a province/city level to guide your investment decision.
The Montreal Formula One race was certainly not shy of action. With Hamilton crashing into Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane, the road was free for BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who had sworn to to win the race after having a massive crash in Montreal last year.
His persistence and focus has paid off with Kubica not only scoring first place with a 24 second lead over the second placed driver, but the Sauber team managing a double win which was their first this season.
The Lewis and Raikkonen incident put both drivers out of the race and incurred a 10 places drop penalty for Lewis in the next race in France for running into Raikkonen who was stopped at the pit lane with a red light. Meanwhile BMW Sauber is rejoicing at their double win which puts them only 3 championship points behind Ferrari.
- Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
- Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)
- David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault)
With France coming up on June 22nd, things might heat up further for the teams.
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There is no doubt that Edmonton, Canada has seen some spectacular increases in property value over the last ten years. 200%+ in fact. But will this continue and what is Edmonton’s future prospect as a property investment? As usual, the analysts and estate agents disagree.
What caused the real estate boom?
Oil. Oil was discovered in Alberta in 1947, much of it concentrated in central and northern Alberta, making Edmonton the base for much of the oil industry. Edmonton did see a drop in values during the 80’s, but made a full recovery very quickly thereafter. Nevertheless, Edmonton’s continuing growth is based heavily on oil extraction and processing. the Conference Board of Canada’s “Autumn 2007 Metropolitan Outlook,” forecast that Edmonton’s GDP for 2007 will be $44.1 billion (2007 dollars), a 3.6% increase over 2006. Read the rest of this entry »
Edmonton Skyline [photo credits mastermaq]
The old saying that Britain gets the ‘flu’ when
America sneezes would suggest that a truly scary disease was in store for the Canadian economy now. However, this seems to be far from the truth; demand for
Canada’s raw materials will continue unless and until US household spending dives so far downwards to result in a slowdown in the Asian economies. In the meantime, the Canadian housing market presents a mixed picture but definitely a rosier one than south of the border.
Wednesday’s decision by the bank of Canada to hold interest rates at the current level (4.5%) was in step with other central banks (such as the Bank of England and the Reserve Bank of Australia) and showed that concerns about liquidity in the financial markets were taking priority over fighting inflation for the time being. This should be seen in the context of
Canada’s recent strong economic growth and the fact that the country is missing its 2% inflation target. The Bank is scheduled to announce its next decision on interest rates in October. In response to the recent credit crunch several Canadian financial institutions
have pledged to actively support the commercial paper market and to
ensure that new credit is available for companies that need it.
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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 
Posted by Overseas Property Mall in 
