Home sales continue to drop

Financial Post- Existing home sales continued their rapid decline last month with 70% of markets showing a drop in sales in June from May, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The Ottawa-based group, which has 100 boards across the country, said sales were off 8.2% from a month ago on a seasonally adjusted basis. Toronto and Calgary led the decline.

CREA said tighter mortgage rules and rising rates are slowing the market which declined 13.3% from first quarter which had close to record sales.

"As expected, these two national factors contributed to a widespread decline in activity, with transactions down in all but a dozen or so smaller markets," said CREA…

Home sales continue to drop

Wealth effect is anything but

Ottawa Citizen- There is something about our stock portfolios and homes being worth more that makes us want to spend.

“It’s called the wealth effect. If you feel you have more, you are more willing to spend more,” says David Onyett-Jeffries, an economist with Royal Bank of Canada.

“When people see their house value increase, they are more willing to spend because there is less requirement to save. They view these assets as being marketable and gaining value.”

Statistics Canada said this week that household net worth increased by 1.3% in the first quarter to $6-trillion — a fourth consecutive quarter of improving wealth. Household net worth has recovered 96% of what was lost during the recession…

Wealth effect is anything but

How Canadians are growing richer but deeper in debt

The Globe and Mail- Canadians are getting richer as stocks and house prices rise. Household net worth rose 1.3 per cent in the first quarter of the year, or $74-billion, to $6-trillion, Statistics Canada said today, as the value of assets eclipsed the rise in liabilities. “This follows a 1.8 per cent advance in the previous quarter,” the federal statistics gathering agency said. “Gains in the value of financial assets, especially equities, as well as increases in residential real estate contributed to the advance in net worth.”

Household debt also rose, particularly mortgages, Statistics Canada said. The ratio of household credit market debt-to-income now stands at 147 per cent, up from 144.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009…

How Canadians are growing richer but deeper in debt - The Globe and Mail

Home ownership costs in Canada keep rising

Times Colonist- Home ownership costs in Canada rose for the third straight quarter in early 2010, and those costs are going to get higher as interest rates rise this year, according a housing report released this week by RBC Economics Research.

The RBC Housing Affordability measure, which identifies how much pre-tax household income is needed to own a home, rose nationally across all housing types in the first quarter of 2010. The detached bungalow benchmark measure rose by 0.9 of a percentage point to 41.1% of average household income, the standard townhouse inched up by 0.4 of a percentage point to 33%, the standard condominium climbed by 0.5 of a percentage point to 28.2% and the standard two-storey home increased by 0.6 percentage points to 46.8%…

Home ownership costs in Canada keep rising

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