Some may be blissfully blind, but others appear to be gleefully blind.

And throughout it all, our American cousins shake their heads in disbelief.

Over at seekingalpha.com Rolfe Winkler looks at the Canadian housing bubble and declares, "so much for Canadian sobriety."

Winkler notes that the average price for a single detached home in the Village on the Edge of the Rainforest now exceeds $1 million, that prices have climbed 23.3% in just 12 months, and that prices are now nearly 3% higher than they were before the housing market crashed.

The Americans know where we are headed.

Of course the gleefully blind proudly proclaim that "because of the economic rebound. And the Olympics. And the warm winter [here]. Vancouver is different."

The rational is always, "it's different here".

Meanwhile Winkler makes the point that all R/E contrarians make:

"Household debt to income in Canada is now more than in the US. All the usual metrics to gauge whether housing is overvalued, eg House Price/Income or House Price/Rent are at levels up to over 30% from their long-run average. These are normally consistent with an overpriced market that is due for a correction; the question is when, as often these things persist for much longer than most people dare to guess. If Canada’s banks are behaving so responsibly, where are households getting so much leverage?"

Cause for concern?

Not according to the Bank of Canada who, according to Reuters, says "Canada's housing market is not in a price bubble but seems firmly valued."

That will be a quote for the ages.

This all comes just days after a CIBC study found that household debt - mostly mortgage debt - is growing three times faster than income.

And all of this comes at a time when many analyst share the sentiment that "the current rebound in the economy is a statistical mirage orchestrated by record amounts of monetary and fiscal stimulus that are simply unsustainable and actually risk precipitating a very unstable financial and economic backdrop in coming years."

One blogger I follow compares the current economic conditions to the Titanic disaster and suggests that we are at about same point in time as that famous ship was after it struck the iceberg.

Instead of a band playing on deck as the vessel took on water, we have the equivalent of an IMAX theater, complete with surround sound, to keep us occupied as we meet our fate.

Regretfully, I couldn't agree more.

http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainforest.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-band-played-on.html

OH Charles, you are so smart. But you sure do know how to burst our balloon.

4 weeks from now they will be telling how slow it is!

One blogger yu follow you say????

Remember Charles, the US economic condition is different than the economic condition in the USA. That statement about the Titanic is about the US economy, not the Canadian econom...

http://jsmineset.com/2010/04/07/imax-on-the-titanic/

http://mikeinbrea.blogspot.com/2010/04/imax-on-titanic.html

Remember charles, with your words, all one has to do is put them into Google and we all know where your source of words comes from. They are never your own, and they may not even apply to the siuation you are trying so hard to apply them to.

BTW, that set of words receives about 15 responses to that article. I have linked only two of them.

Interesting when one actually puts those words into the context of the article.
--------------------------------

So, here is the counter argument which you did not post, so I will......

"Several factors are behind the loonie's rise, including rebounding commodity prices, a strong Canadian recovery and the soundness of Canada's public finances relative to other countries. In a forecast issued yesterday, the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development predicted Canada's economy would grow at an annual rate of 6.2 per cent in the first quarter and 4.5 per cent in the second, faster than any other G7 nation"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Feds+touch+loonie/2775652/story.html

"Padoan noted Canada had entered the recession with stronger fundamentals than its peers in terms of growth, the banking sector and the government's fiscal position. Canada's debt relative to its economy is the lowest in the G7."

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/791937--canada-s-growth-outshines-rest-of-g7

Happy hunting amongst the gloom and doom set Charles ....... :-)

Time to buy in MacKenzie. Super cheap there.

The difference about Canadians and American. For the last 65 years, they were under the belief that they are the only ones in the world that can make things happen, and nobody outside its borders are good at anything.

Canadians on the other hand, we are humble and caring people. We don't mind working for a living, we grumble about our taxation. But we will defiantly protect our basic health care, our CPP and other social infrastructure. We respect each others opinion (even if they are wrong). We do not bully our way, to get what we want. We do it by, earning it.

As our immigration doors open up, we just have to ensure that these values are kept. We need to review our judicial systems, and make criminals pay for their crimes. Even if it means building more institutions.

So what does this have to do about our economy. It is because of our conservative and social values, that gave us banks with restrictions and common sense. Our Federal government operates with the principal of what is best for the masses. and not by the highest bidder on the lobbyist. Our fundamentals are established and we need to protect what works, and have it not sold away to lobbyists.

I believe, that the United States of America, did have a solid fundamentals. These fundamentals, slowly got eroded away by lobbyists undermining it for selfish gains to special interest groups. They are a long way from recovery. They are starting to this, they are now starting to look at themselves in the mirror, to find out who they are. But, in the words of a believer, " its not what this country can do for you, its what you can do for this country". They need to dig deep and get back to basics. The government can not change the country as fast as the population of a country can.

Royal LePage warns of real estate 'irrationality'
Prices up more than 10% across Canada in 1st quarter: survey

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/08/real-estate-royal-lepage.html?ref=rss#ixzz0kWv2zbdC

The story of three cities.

Vancouver has been sky high for two decades now.

Toronto was low until the mid 1980's then started to catch up.

Montreal has been low ever since some of the head offcies started to move to Toronto.

Nothing unusual about those cities as far as I can see.

What is intersting is that the house prices in some cities never dropped much, if any. One of those was Ottawa. House prices there have been low relative to some of the larger cities, especially those of similar size, such as Edmonton and Calgary.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Housing+price+rise+makes+Ottawa+sellers+market+report/2777809/story.html

This, to me, are the key words from Royal ...

"National averages from our first quarter report are not particularly useful in painting a picture of the country's neighbourhood real estate stories. House sale data from the past two year period shows tremendous variances in terms of how different cities reacted to the recession," said Phil Soper, president and chief executive, Royal LePage Real Estate Services."

Bang on!!!!! the curretn grwoth in some cities in playing catch up to flat and dropping markets in those locations. Others never even dropped during that time period.

Looking at our own northern part of the province, even though the sample numbers are small, one can see exactly. Some are up to where they were, others are not, yet others still, such as Ft. St. John, are skyrocketing again.

National or provincial averages mean very little if one is buying/selling local.