Alberta Economy to Be Strong Even When US Sneezes!
Alberta Economy to Be Strong Even When US Sneezes!
Prospective homebuyers in
According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, the median home price for the total Calgary MLS was $360,000 for the month of August, down from $370,000 in July. Inventory also fell slightly to 12,673 MLS listings compared to 13,551 in July. The median price is the price point where half the homes sold were higher and half were lower. Tracking the median price is preferable to the average price because the latter can be skewed by the sale of very expensive homes. The average days on the market (DOM) rose to 58 in August from 56 in July. A more striking comparison is the 2008 average DOM of 50 compared to 33 for 2007.
The Calgary Real Estate Board data is consistent with Statistics Canada data on building permits, as well as the CMHC housing starts data, that suggest the real estate market in
With a provincial economy that is seeing some moderation after years of boom, we can expect to see more sideways movement in the
US Mortgage Foreclosures at Record High
Woes in the American housing market have been making headline news recently, and now they’re really starting to show up in the economic data. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported in the National Delinquency Survey that 1.19% of American homes were entering foreclosure, continuing an upward trend that began around the second quarter of 2006. This is nearly double the rate of 0.65% in the second quarter of 2007. The delinquency rate is a leading indicator of foreclosure rates. The delinquency rate (the percentage of loans that are at least one payment past due, but not including those already in foreclosure) reached 6.41% of all loans outstanding as of September
If there is a silver lining in these numbers, it’s that delinquencies and foreclosures are concentrated in a relatively small number of states. Losses are heaviest in the sunny vacation destination states such as
Delinquencies were also concentrated in - you guessed it – sub-prime loans. The delinquency rate for sub-prime loans was 18.67% compared to 3.93% for prime loans. Not only are problems concentrated geographically, they are also concentrated among low income Americans.
What does all this mean for
