Canuckleheads are overpaid and have crap mortgages

[Barrister]

I suppose this thread is as good as any for a news report that Canada's middle class, measured by median income, is now the "richest".  Our median income after taxes grew at 19.7% since 2000 while in the US the figure was only .3%.

Is that constant dollar?

Yes, according to the report the analysis was done in US dollars.

Yi's favourite magazine suggests it is mostly due to our enormous property bubble.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/how-did-canadas-middle-class-get-so-rich/361053/

Sigh. The housing bubble again. It's like the Cuisinart of financial explainations - it slices! it dices!

It does everything except happen, so far.

I've been hearing about Canada's housing bubble practically my whole adult life ...

It's only been a story for the last ten years or so, and moreso after the US property bubble burst in 2008.

[Ideologue]

I've been hearing about Canada's housing bubble practically my whole adult life ...

I predicted a housing market crash in the U.S. back in 2004.  I was scorned.  We'll see how yours goes.

[Valmy]

I've been hearing about Canada's housing bubble practically my whole adult life ...

I predicted a housing market crash in the U.S. back in 2004.  I was scorned.  We'll see how yours goes.

Everybody predicted it.  Everybody was talking about it.  Somehow people still were surprised when it happened and it nearly took down our entire financial system.  Always good to know the captains of finance are around making millions to suck ass at their jobs.

[DGuller]

Sigh. The housing bubble again. It's like the Cuisinart of financial explainations - it slices! it dices!

It does everything except happen, so far.

I've been hearing about Canada's housing bubble practically my whole adult life ...

The bubble happened, what hasn't happened is the bursting of the bubble.  That happens occasionally, bubbles wouldn't happen if the timing of their bursting were entirely predictable.

[Valmy]

The bubble happened, what hasn't happened is the bursting of the bubble.  That happens occasionally, bubbles wouldn't happen if the timing of their bursting were entirely predictable.

Excuses excuses.

[DGuller]

Everybody predicted it.  Everybody was talking about it.

That's not true at all, unless you're talking about 2008, when it already happened.  I recall a lot of arguments being made that there was a pent-up demand for real estate, or that real estate can never go down in price, or some other bullshit theories.

[alfred russel]

Yes, according to the report the analysis was done in US dollars.

That doesn't mean it was constant dollar. Constant dollar means you pick an exchange rate, usually the one at the beginning of the period, and leave it unchanged throughout the analysis.

If they didn't do that, the biggest driver of the change could well be the appreciation of the canadian dollar, which probably doesn't reflect so much in the way of day to day living standards.

[DGuller]

The bubble happened, what hasn't happened is the bursting of the bubble.  That happens occasionally, bubbles wouldn't happen if the timing of their bursting were entirely predictable.

Excuses excuses.

Yeah, I have no illusions that I would be able to convince Malthus.  He's looking at himself in the mirror every night, enamored with the sight of a man who was wise enough to ignore the doom-sayers when he was buying his house.

[Barrister]

The bubble happened, what hasn't happened is the bursting of the bubble.  That happens occasionally, bubbles wouldn't happen if the timing of their bursting were entirely predictable.

Excuses excuses.

Yeah, I have no illusions that I would be able to convince Malthus.  He's looking at himself in the mirror every night, enamored with the sight of a man who was wise enough to ignore the doom-sayers when he was buying his house.

Malthus probably was wise to buy his house when he did.  It may well decrease in value over the next several years, but that doesn't mean he still didn't come out ahead of the game.

Anyone looking to buy their first house now though...

[DGuller]

Malthus probably was wise to buy his house when he did.  It may well decrease in value over the next several years, but that doesn't mean he still didn't come out ahead of the game.

Anyone looking to buy their first house now though...

I'm not saying that he made the wrong decision, in hindsight or at the time.  Sometimes personal circumstances overpower the cost of the market risk.  It's the just that the world is full of people who bet on black and won, and based on that accomplishment alone think they have something about the physics of roulette wheels figured out.

[Ed Anger]

Malt: worst human ever

[Valmy]

Everybody predicted it.  Everybody was talking about it.

That's not true at all, unless you're talking about 2008, when it already happened.  I recall a lot of arguments being made that there was a pent-up demand for real estate, or that real estate can never go down in price, or some other bullshit theories.

Ok anybody with a grasp for the obvious were predicting it.  It was a big topic of conversation from 2004 onwards...probably even before then.

[crazy canuck]

It's only been a story I have been aware of for the last ten years or so, and moreso after the US property bubble burst in 2008.

fyp

The housing bubble scare has been around for a very long time in Vancouver and iirc Toronto.

It is useful to make people who are not in the market feel smug about their inability to purchase dirt.

[Valmy]

I bought a house in 2009.  Am I: a real estate genius?

[DGuller]

It is useful to make people who are not in the market feel smug about their inability to purchase dirt.