HOT HOUSING MARKET SPILLS OVER TO THIS REGION

EVEN CASUAL OBSERVERS OF the housing market have watched with wonder and/or dismay what’s happening to prices. And not just in Toronto and Vancouver, as the there’s been a spill-over effect that extends in growing rings, even to this regions.

British Columbia’s surcharge on foreign buyers tempered the Vancouver market, at least temporarily. Ontario has moved in that direction with the Toronto market, also announcing plans to muck about with rent controls even as stocks dwindle and the flood of unneeded newcomers continues – a recipe for nothing but disaster.

Already, many people – especially younger ones, but increasingly cutting across demographics – despair of owning a home as the economy sinks, works become more precarious and, sometimes inexplicably, housing costs rise.

With prices, government policy is largely to blame, mostly through immigration and, down through the ranks, poor land-use planning and growing taxes and fees.

The big issue, of course, is whether we’ve got a housing bubble ... and when it will it pop.

Not just yet, apparently, as the market continues to heat up. Even in this region, sales each month reach new heights, as do costs. Last month, sales were up 14.3 per cent over the same time in 2016, reports the Kitchener Waterloo Association of Realtors. More ominously, the average sale price of homes was up 40 per cent to $513,000 over April over last year.

Nationally, the average price for homes sold was $548,517 in March, up 8.2 per cent from where it stood one year earlier. That price is greatly elevated by sales in Vancouver and Toronto; excluding those markets drops the average price to $389,726, with local prices looking much stronger in comparison.

Studies show rising prices in Toronto are pushing buyers not just to the outer edges of the GTA but to places farther afield, such as Waterloo Region.

Average home prices are now far out of reach of many residents, which doesn’t seem sustainable. Some economists and market watchers are waiting on a correction. Still, there are plenty of us who see housing as a safe investment, unlike, for instance, the stock market, which remains volatile. Both markets are a gamble, however, and both were and continue to be heavily manipulated by the financial sector, the very industry responsible for the systemic corruption at the root of our economic woes. Speculation, of course, is another word for gambling. There’s a simple reality, however: housing prices do not always go up.

Price decreases could help those looking to get into the market down the road, but that upside could be offset by the fact credit is harder to come by. Lenders are hanging on to their money, and tightening requirements when they do part with it.

If there is a take-away lesson to be learned when it comes to real estate, it’s don’t take any undue risks. And gambling, which is how we’ve been viewing the housing market, is risky to the core. If we keep betting on ever-increasing prices – with equity loans to match – and allowing too many people to over-leverage themselves, there’s going to be a great deal of pain if the market sees a correction or if interest rates start rising to historical levels. Don’t wager the farm on the boom times lasting forever.