Tag Archives: housing bubble

Interest rates are rising to cool inflation and remove home buyer stimulus kicking off a global real estate correction.

Many households, financial and non-financial firms and government, may well spend the next decade in debtor’s prison having to tighten their belts to pay for the losses inflicted by a decade of reckless leverage, over-consumption and risk taking. What fools we have been for living beyond our means all these years and taking no fiscal responsibility for our future well-being in the false hope that there always would be a ‘greater fool’ out there than us. Words: 1230

the US Government is on a trajectory to default on their obligations, and the same can realistically be said for the UK and Japan. The answer put forward by the US, UK and Japanese governments? Quantitative Easing and 0% interest rates. Have they learned nothing from the past decade?! Words: 2355

We believe what we believe will make us rich, what feeds our euphoric confidence that the bubble-music will never stop and our credulity that bubbles which we know will pop will not pop until we've safely cashed out.

It is clear global real estate prices are heating up again and, due to interest rates being lower now than in the previous cycle, real estate prices in the U.S. and globally may actually surprise us with several more years of growth before they peak as global liquidity searches for the few relatively safe assets (in the least dirty shirt fashion) as a way to protect against reflation and devaluation in non-U.S. countries.

With recent numbers positive for housing realtors, politicians, and others with vested interests, are quick to claim we are on our way back - but are such numbers really meaningful and sustainable? Many more objective analysts, however, are less sure or disagree with this conclusion that the bottom has been reached yet. Here's what some of them have to say. Words: 1377

Given the global economic backdrop, and in particular the sharp correction in energy prices to which Canada is highly exposed, the risks of a Canadian housing correction are rising. Home prices, which corrected about 10% during the recession, have surged again, making household balance sheets look increasingly fragile. Economists are becoming concerned. [Should Canadians be worried too? Let's review the situation.] Words: 280

Getting into a good university is not an easy feat and securing a job upon graduation in the current economic climate is not easy either...The biggest challenge for most university graduates, however, is paying off their education loan [which is] hardly surprising [given that] the sum of student debt is higher than credit card debt across the United States. It may sound preposterous that some have called higher education the next big bubble so read the following infographic, which compares the higher education bubble to the housing bubble, and decide for yourself. Words: 410

Canada, France and Switzerland stood alone among nine markets measured in recording annual price gains, based on second-quarter data, with inflation-adjusted price increases of 5%, 5% and 4%, respectively, compared to declines of 6% in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, 10% in Spain and 14% in Ireland. In fact, Canada's home prices have escalated 44% since 2005 - with a high of 68% in Vancouver - and they are up 7.7% in the past 12 months! Words: 1244

Buy-and-hold gold and silver and [the stocks and long-term warrants of quality] precious metals miners - and sleep well at night. [Let me explain why that is the case.] Words: 731