Canada’s bubbly housing market gains momentum

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By Leith van Onselen

Earlier this week, joint winner of the 2013 Economics Nobel Prize, Robert Shiller, identified some parts of the US, Australia, China, Brazil, India, Norway, and Belgium as countries that could potentially be in the thoes of a housing bubble.

For some strange reason – maybe and oversight – Shiller left Canada off his list, which seems curious given the massive increase in household debt:

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As well as the huge surge in Canadian house prices.

Indeed, according to the September house price results released earlier this week by Teranet, house values have risen by a whopping 30% since bottoming in April 2009 and are now at their highest recorded level nationally in both nominal and real (inflation-adjusted) terms:

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Moreover, while price growth had slowed recently, it looks to have begun gaining momentum once more, driven by its biggest market, Toronto:

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Clearly, any discussion of housing bubbles cannot leave Canada out – a view shared by The Economist’s global house price report:

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.