CREA projects average house prices to dip

The Canadian Real Estate Association is predicting that the national average for house prices will drop in 2012, but not by much.  I wouldn't put too much stock in such forecasts though, before the U.S. housing market cratered so called experts were out to lunch on their predictions south of the border.

The elephant in the room, so to speak, is household debt.  The national average is pegged at over 150% of income with low interest rates being cited as the major cause.  And with so many buyers leveraging themselves to the hilt to buy into a bubble market, many Canadians are sitting on mountains of debt with very little wiggle room should the need to access capital arise. 

Right now we're where the Americans were before their housing balloon went BANG. 

According to the governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney, roughly 10% of Canadians are vulnerable financially.  And with home ownership at over 70% in this country there isn't a lot of demand left over when listings start to swell.

My opinion, worth as much as that of the CREA, is that once prices start to dip, that many who were thinking of selling will decide to hang on until things improve.  But momentum in any market is hard to stop.  When real estate prices were climbing the mob mentality took over, with many paying more than they could reasonably afford due to fear of being priced out of the market.

It will be like people who bought Nortel north of $150 per share after it started coming down.  Many will hang on thinking that a rebound is just a year or two away....yes, like in the U.S. 

All it will take for a U.S. style drop in prices is another recession or even a minor bump in interest rates.  And both of those scenarios are more likely than not to occur over the next 12-24 months.

Robocall scam provided employment...in Canada!!!

Canadians upset over the RoboCall scandal need to look at this another way.  With our sputtering economy and record high levels of debt, a strategy like this provides jobs.  Sure, call centre jobs aren't the highest paying or most secure....but at least the CPC didn't hire a company that make calls out of India or  something.

Its now being reported that in addition to Racknine Inc out of Edmonton, the Tories employed the services of Responsive Marketing Group out of Thunder Bay.  And interviews with employees in big Thunder indicate the callers were actual people, not a digital voice as was the case with Racknine. 

So this is good news.  In Ontario, where unemployment is higher, more jobs were created.  Alberta on the other hand, they got a bit of money flowing their way, but I'm sure using a machine was a more cost effective way to subvert democracy and besides...Alberta is swimming in oil money so jobs aren't as sorely needed.

Call centres aren't that bad of a place to work.  Making calls on behalf of the CPC requires only basic literacy skills and there's no heavy lifting.  And with the direction Canada is moving, we're going to have lots of people heading into retirement needing extra income.     

• Those forty year no money down mortgages are starting to come due, with many experts calling for a US style cratering of real estate in this country. 
• Income trusts are no longer tax exempt, never mind that our Prime Minister said he would never go after seniors' retirement nest eggs.
• And Canadians are looking at having to work longer to qualify for a government pension. 

Call it the Action Plan part II, getting Canadians working and ensuring that we have a Conservative majority in Ottawa to steer us through these difficult times.

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Canadians don't care about the 'Robocall' scam....

When is a scandal not a scandal?  When nobody gives a rip. 

Sorry for the trailer park answer to that question, but I'm thinking some conservatives might read this...and well, I like to pander.  If I tossed in a word like dichotomy their eyes would glaze over and their heads would tilt to one side.

Better to keep things simple.

Its like the so called in and out scandal, sure it smells but we live in a win at all costs society now.  Call it a hybrid between pro wrestling and MMA, in keeping with the white trash theme.  Elections still have a veneer of respectability, so what if the rules get bent a little, or even a lot.

We won, you lost....stop whining.  Besides, you evil coalition types probably did some bad things too.  Snipe snipe snipe between Canada's political camps, while ordinary Canadians try to get extensions on their lines of credit to fill up their broken down cars so they can get to Timmy's in hopes of rolling up a Camry.

Hell, around 40% of Canadians didn't even bother to vote last time around.  We've got bigger worries.

Jobs are disappearing, Canadians are up to the eyeballs in debt and worried about warnings of higher interest rates.  We're going to be working longer to qualify for a piddly government pension.  Corporate welfare is alive and well in the Great White North, the rest of us are on our own. 

Who has time to worry about attempts to swipe ballot boxes and fraudulent phone calls being made to steal a lousy election? 

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Is the U.S. conservative movement on drugs?

I realize very well that the conservative movement in the U.S. has gone and basically co-opted the fundamentalist, born again, bible thumping, man walked with dinosaurs Christian crowd.  Fair enough, they're a great constituency to have.  They're used to doing as they're told, and they don't worry about obvious contradictions or warped logic. 

And that's a good thing for Rick Santorum, the new golden boy of the religious right. 

President Obama wants higher college enrollment in the United States.  Sounds good right?  You know, the globally competitive marketplace we now live in requires an intelligent and adaptable work force.  Unless of course you just want burger flippers and Wal-Mart greeters tossing their 10% tithes into the minimum wage collection plate. 

Ahhhhhh but wait.  Its all part of a huge left wing conspiracy.  Mr. Santorum was recently quoted saying that 62% of students who enter college and university with a faith commitment, leave without it.  Students learn to think critically, they gain knowledge, and they begin to question the religious teachings about the invisible man in the sky.  You know....God.  They become less malleable, more independent in their judgement and less easy to manipulate.  Heavens, they learn that they don't have to listen to Rush Limbaugh and some conclude that the bombastic radio host is really nothing more than a trailer park blow hard.

Conservative leaders sure don't want that. 

Thank heavens things haven't gone that far north of the border, at least not yet.  I wonder if our Prime Minister still holds to views he had back in 1997, when he said to an ultra conservative U.S. think tank:

"....your country, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world".

Seems to me that "light" is running seriously low on juice. 

I'll end this entry with a YouTube clip of the late great George Carlin.  If you've had post secondary schooling you might find it amusing.  Warning, it has the (gasp) Eff word in it, but that's  Carlin :-)

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