Canadian Real Estate (bust)

I saw this Canadian real estate story in McLeans today:

....because despite the carnage in Vancouver, many economists and real estate groups are still predicting that we’ll have just a little stumble—maybe a drop of three to eight per cent in prices—and then the market will roar back to life by the end of the year. But new data on the plunging housing market suggests that those relatively upbeat assessments are wrong, and Canada could see a 20 per cent drop in average house prices between now and late 2011. If sophisticated investors are correct, it might be close to a decade before we once again see prices as high as they were last summer.

About a year ago, Simon Côté, managing director of property derivatives at National Bank, had a bright idea. He noticed that the market let investors bet their money on oil futures, bond futures, even canola futures, but there wasn’t a way to bet on the future prices of Canadian houses. So he decided to launch a whole new market, one that, among other things, would allow investors who think they know where the housing market is going to put money on it.

When the Teranet market started up in December, it immediately predicted a shocking drop of 20 per cent, followed by an excruciatingly slow recovery that might not see prices return to last year’s high for seven years, or longer.

Here's my addition: Regional markets are different than national aggregate numbers (ave. through out the county or region) ....but....primary residents are not investments!

Fuck! Your kitchen is not your retirement! We'll come up with better kitchens! There's always something better