The latest attempt to prick a bubble

I sincerely hope that the rest of the world does not think of Canada as one giant concrete penis sticking out of a gazillion railroad tracks!

I mean, the image is a truer one than some fellow in the woods in a canoe, but, honestly, are there not other images of Canada available, that would not mislead the world into thinking the place is ugly.

I suggest that painting of President Harper (yeah, I know he's a Prime Minister, but he doesn't act so)naked. There's an image of beauty if I ever heard of one!

George Keith Young
Montréal

Woods? Canoe?

I can't afford such luxury! It's an expensive hobby!

I have to stick to cheaper things, like Cuban all inclusive vacations!

Canada is is denial, drunk on cheap credit like everyone else. The party is over, as even our Finance Minister admits it time to flicker the lights and tell everyone to go home.

My fellow Canadians - talk to your American cousins. Regain your fiscal humility.

I went to a talk a few weeks ago by a prof from UBC (this guy: http://strategy.sauder.ubc.ca/somerville/) and one of his main points was that Canada's real estate market is really a bunch of different markets that look very different from each other. Sure there are very frothy markets, like Toronto, and there are very expensive markets, like Vancouver (which has always been expensive), but there are also many other markets that don't look particularly bubbly.

Obviously Toronto is a huge part of the Canadian real-estate picture, but when pundits say Canada's in for a correction I think they should probably be saying significant PARTS of Canada MAY be in for a correction.

Perhaps the picture is a metaphor for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's giant ego and imperial arrogance on the world stage. He lectures others and refuses to participate while he rides around on a one trick pony called "Oilsands".

The Toronto condo market is in full bubble mode... Hopefully they can deflate it before it bursts outright.

I'm just a guy from Regina and no real estate expert but I don't understand why the government persists in kicking around the periphery of the problem. The real issue is what happens to people with hefty mortgages if and when rates go up. Stricter limits should be put on the percentage of gross income relative to debt. This would help to prevent people from buying more house than they need and build in some protection while reducing demand. Can someone explain to me why the government doesn't just do this?

Whether or not these measures will be effective remains to be seen but at the Government is making the effort BEFORE the bubble bursts.

Didn't this Government just return the rules to what they were originally before they introduced the 40 year mortgage etc.? So one could argue they are just correcting their mistake.

Hey I drove the full length of the Gardener and counted all the cranes I could see .... I counted 43 cranes...

To the best of my knowledge that is already being done through the banks. I think CHMC requires the banks to go through a rigorous evaluation of the mortgage applicants debt in order to ascertain the ability to receive the mortgage.
I know my bank grilled me when I made an application for a mortgage.

I think the problem is when people with mortgages who later over extend themselves on their credit cards. So perhaps it is the credit car debt that needs more regulation.

Agree photo is weak, but at least it's from this decade.

Check out the following web site for great photos of Toronto's current real-estate boom...
http://www.urbantoronto.ca/

Stephen Harper behaves exactly like a Canadian Prime Minister with a majority Parliament. What he says goes! Presidents wish they could exercise such power over Congress.

With the amount of construction going on in downtown Toronto these days, photos age by the year.

The Wiki panorama from 2002 feels like a different city with a few lonely condo buildings.

I feel like I walk through the construction yard on a daily basis and, increasingly, that I live in North American version of Hong Kong.

Anyone interested in some on the ground information on how crazy real estate in Toronto is getting is advised to see fmlistings.tumblr.com (Work-safe)

Their is no doubt that this was the correct policy to implement! The only questions is, was it soon enough?

I could not agree with you more.

The number of condos going up is astounding. I even believe condo developers are not doing the numbers to check demand for their next condo project, but rather building with the attitude that their condo will be better than their competitor's condo hence people will come buy. I saw this concept some years back with shopping centre developers in South Africa. They were building too many mega shopping centres with overlapping influence zones. The result - many shopping centres went bust and are barren even today.

I'm actually hoping that the this new policy isn't actually going to set off a snow ball effect of developers going bust and Toronto's skyline becoming a series of un-completed condo towers.

Their is no doubt that this was the correct policy to implement! The only questions is, was it soon enough?

Another reason Canadian banks are lauded the world over for their stability: Toronto-Dominion still has a triple-A rating (from Moody's). I think the only other bank in the world with a AAA rating is Holland's Rabobank.

I don't understand why the federal government cannot set lending measures conditions based on density. Large cities are in bubbles and rural areas are not. So what kind of damage are these policies doing to the lesser developed and less densly populated areas of the country? Aren't these other parts of the coutry the areas that we want to be developing more and promoting growth within?

Sad to say that this appears to be more of a Vancouver/Toronto policy, instead of what it needs to be which is a federal Canadian policy.