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Feb 04, 2012 breitbart.com 
Julian Beltrame, THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA - Canadian workers are taking the full brunt of the deepening recession as February saw another 82,600 jobs vanish and the unemployment rate jump to the highest level in more than five years.
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Feb 02, 2012 Derek Abma business.financialpost.com
OTTAWA — Never mind Europe or the United States, Canada’s got a number of its own economic problems, according a panel of experts who gathered Thursday in Ottawa.
An inflated housing market, an under-utilization of the country’s human resources and growing gaps between rich and poor were just a few of the issues brought up in a discussion that took place on Parliament Hill, organized by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
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Jan 31, 2012 Daniel Tencer The Huffington Post Canada
Canada’s financial regulator is growing worried that Canadian banks are following their American counterparts into the “subprime” mortgage market that blew up the financial system in 2008.
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Jan 27, 2012 canadianbusiness.com
What it means to you: Rising prices, stagnant wages and mounting debt loads could send the housing market into a tailspin.
Is this the year the housing market finally crashes? So far, it sure doesn’t look like it. Sales activity over the past 12 months has been strong, and prices have continued their unstoppable march upward—despite a tepid domestic economy and turmoil around the world. The average price for Canadian homes sold in November stood at $360,396, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. Meaning that in just 10 years, prices have doubled.
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Jan 26, 2012 macleans.ca
Some properties in Canada are “probably overvalued,” according to Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney. The country’s chief central banker made the statement in an interview with CTV’s Question Period, which was broadcast on Sunday, adding his voice to worries that a housing bubble could be forming in the country. “There are risks out there. We’re watching it closely,” he said, quoted by the Reuters news agency. Carney added that the central bank is working with financial institutions and the federal government to keep the situation under control. Ottawa has already ramped up mortgage regulations. On Jan. 17, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government is ready to step in and intervene in the housing market if necessary.
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Jan 23, 2012 Ted Rechtshaffen theglobeandmail.com
A few months ago I heard leading Canadian investor Eric Sprott speak, and he said a very basic thing that struck a chord. He said that you should not be afraid to connect the dots. The dots are usually in front of you, but people don’t often look beyond the single dot.
Today I am going to show six dots that we can all see. When we connect them, the conclusion is that the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) has a realistic chance of putting the Canadian taxpayer at risk – unless meaningful changes are made.
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Jan 23, 2012 BARRIE McKENNA theglobeandmail.com
In the newspaper business, it’s called coincidental placement – the juxtaposition of two unrelated items in a way that tells a powerful story of its own.
Take last Wednesday’s Globe and Mail. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney are all over the Report on Business section, fretting that a mortgage price war is duping Canadians into buying homes they can’t afford.
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January 17, 2012 The Province And Reuters
Existing homes sales in the Vancouver area fell last month and the average price dropped slightly, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday.
The number of sales in the area declined by 4.1 per cent in December, while the average price eased by two per cent to $734,766, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the real-estate association said.
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Jan 17, 2012 Doug Alexander and Sean B. Pasternak bloomberg.com
Kevin Lau, a Toronto-based technology consultant, says he can’t wait to take advantage of the lowest mortgage rates in Canadian history to buy a second condominium and rent his current home.
Lau, 28, plans to get another mortgage and refinance his C$160,000 ($157,000) home loan after Bank of Montreal, Toronto- Dominion Bank and Royal Bank of Canada (RY) cut borrowing costs last week.
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Jan 12, 2012 cbc.ca/news
Toronto, Vancouver markets singled out
The robust Canadian housing sector, especially the booming condo markets in Vancouver and Toronto, could be at risk in 2012, say the heads of some of Canada's biggest banks.
Gordon Nixon, president and CEO at Royal Bank told a banking conference Tuesday the Canadian housing market could be headed for a slowdown, led by Vancouver and Toronto.
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Jan 09, 2012 Michael Babad Globe and Mail
Whither the real estate market?
Canada’s housing market is headed for a cooling-off period, which is no surprise, given the uncertain economic climate, a rising unemployment rate and recent changes to mortgage rules. The question is the path, and how steep that downturn will be.
By many accounts, the slowdown will not become a bust, with a moderate decline in prices over the next couple of years. Not all observers believe that, though.
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Jan 09, 2012 Daniel Tencer The Huffington Post Canada
Canada’s housing market is more overvalued than the US’s market was at its peak, and Canadians are carrying a larger debt burden than Americans were before the crash, a report from The Economist states.
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Jan 5, 2010 Finn Poschmann Financial Post
It was a good run. And now, in 2012, it is time for Canada's housing market to stop running and catch its breath.
Three things have pushed me, growling and snarling, into the bearish camp. First is the seemingly relentless upward march in housing prices, which eventually will stop rising faster than incomes. Second is household debt, which has reached great peaks and will surely begin to wobble. Third is the heady share of domestic output that is being absorbed by housing construction, displacing arguably more productive investment elsewhere, which it cannot forever continue to do.
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 Marketwire finance.yahoo.com Jan 03, 2012
a Comprehensive Report on the State of Housing in Canada
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -12/29/11)- Housing-related spending accounts for more than 20 per cent of Canada's Gross Domestic Product, contributing about $330 billion to the Canadian economy in 2010 - up 7.1 per cent from $308 billion in 2009. This and other key findings are in the ninth annual Canadian Housing Observer, released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
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Dec 29, 2011 Vito Pilieci The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa's real estate market is showing signs of finally settling down.
In the new-home sector, builders scaled back in 2011, starting an estimated 5,750 homes (final numbers aren't in yet), compared to 6,446 units in 2010 and 5,814 in 2009, according to figures from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
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Dec 24, 2011 news1130.com
Bank forecasts a sales drop of 15% and a home-price decrease of 12% in 2012
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - According to economists at the TD bank, "a larger-than-average price and sales correction looks to be in store" for the housing market in Vancouver. It forecasts a sales drop of 15% and a home-price decrease of 12% over the 2012-2013 period."
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Steven Jon Kaplan seekingalpha.comDuring 2005-2006, we experienced a housing bubble in the United States which was accompanied by valuations in many regions trading at more than twice their normal historic levels. Today, we have similar housing bubbles in many countries with prices that are at twice or thrice their typical valuations relative to rents, incomes, and most other standard-of-living benchmarks.
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