The real estate industry listens very closely to central bankers, and why wouldn’t they? Monetary policy heavily influences real estate prices. However, if you really listen to the words they use, you start to realize that they all sound the same… almost all of the time, regardless of what the economy is doing.
Half joking, I tweeted a quote and polled when and who said it: The Bank of Canada in 2018, or the US Federal Reserve right before the Great Recession. I thought it was a little murky, but my Twitter feed targets a small but highly technical financial crowd – I figured most would get it. Surprisingly, the poll was split 50-50. Half of people that answered couldn’t tell the difference between a quote on Canadian real estate in 2018 or the US in 2006.
We figured we would give our readers a similar quick quiz. Can you tell if the following quotes are from the Bank of Canada’s Governor Poloz on Canadian real estate (2017-2018), or the US Federal Reserve’s Bernanke (2005 – 2007), right before the worst recession in history. Trust us, this quiz is going to be as informative as any data point we could give you.
[qsm quiz=1]
Photo: Bank of Canada.
Damn. That’s the only quiz that made me less sure about my housing opinions. I’m going to need to do one that tells me which Spice Girl I am next. lol
Don’t feed the trolls people. Don’t get them wet…or is that mogwai? BD4L.
You always feed the mogwai, that’s how they get those cool wings. Also, which side is trolling? I’m sure bulls think bears are trolling, and vice versa. 😂
Well that was scary.
Great piece!
I failed =(
Yes!
I also failed. Passing this should be a requirement for high-ratio mortgages.
You Got 5 Out Of 5 Quotes Correct. You Really Know Your Shit.
lol it’s broken… it says I got 2 out of 5 quotes correct, but when you look at the answers I actually got 4/5
ya me too, i got 4/5 and it said u got 2 out of 5, but I really know my shit. haha woot.
0 out of 5 lmao. In fairness, I was trying to answer as if I didn’t know the premise was to trick me.
it is not easy. I got all answers wrong.
The real answer is that all quotes were applicable to the US market and to the Canadian market whether or not anyone actually said them. The fact which virtually no one wants to admit is that massive fraud crashed the US housing market. It was Accounting Control Fraud which was enabled by the legalizing of Credit Default Swaps (CDSs).
I suggest that Canada not compare its market today with the US market in 2007 (unless it has massive fraud). Rather, I suggest that Canada focus on the long term economic impacts of the New Urbanism whose origins greatly pre-dates the US Crash. Our crash caused the New Urbanism housing crash to happen years early due to the massive Wall Street fraud. Canada appears to be merely experiencing the adverse impacts of the New Urbanism which has infected Australia, London, and Canada.
Oh, there’s massive fraud. The government has been just brushing it under the rug, and saying it was “misfilings” and “errors in document submissions.”
Canada has no fraud, because a fifth of the country doesn’t consider it fraud to lie about your income. There’s a whole city just outside of Toronto, known around the world for doctoring mortgage documents.
Canada officially has no interest only loans, but 8% of originations in Ontario might be just that.
Canada officially has no zero down, but there’s tons of “cash back” programs, where a prime lender will give you your deposit back, add the loan to your mortgage, and charge a near subprime rate.
Most people are unaware that Canada’s primary industry is banking. The second that boat wobbles, the government needs to reassure investors. Canada’s market is exactly like the US in 2006, except the coverup is being run by the government.
I’m 100% certain that BC has fraud after looking into getting a mortgage myself and speaking with the guys doing the loans.
it is a shit slurry out there. But at least they have nicer weather.
BOK, Cut interest rate and pump up housing price again and show growth , #fake economy.
4/5! That Mother Nature quote was easy because I remember thinking that was such a weird thing to say!
Through arranged cash back program people are taking 105% mortgage.
I.e furnishing is also covered.
Sad part is we are going to pay the liability through taxes
Gosh- does this mean we’re going to have another 2-3 years of ridiculous housing prices before the inevitable crash? I thought it was around the corner!
The Americans were concerned about Chinese ownership of real estate?
Yeah, I didn’t know this either. I tried to bid on a property in Western Toronto suburb that came on the market Friday at 5pm, but someone in Beijing purchased conditional by 9 am Saturday. How is it legal for someone from another country to have equal rights to purchase in good school districts? What is all this blubbering about Canada citizenship when you just need a house to get free healthcare and education. That alone is a good $200,000 discount for Chinese. This country is run by a bunch of potatos.
Yup. Chinese buyers represented 12% of foreign buyers in the US around then, but in 2006-2010 they were concentrated in certain regions, like Southern California. This LA Times article from around then has agents saying 25% of their sales were going to Chinese buyers.
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-re-international23mar23-story.html
It would help if you actually READ the article. It was AFTER the crash, and it referred to Canadians (yes, we are foreign buyers for US real estate) and Europeans picking up the fire-sale prices.
It would help if you weren’t dumb as mud and didn’t need hand holding through the whole explanation. That article is from 2008, with their client base already established. Prices bottomed in 2012.
Now here’s where you dig for hours to come up with a way to save your ego, because rude little snots like you with shitty attitudes can’t be wrong.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I KNOW better than to respond to click bait troll droppings.
BFO stands for something else, I see.
The quote says “assets”, not houses. Likely Greenspan was responding to a question in Congress about Chinese purchases of American firms.
Looking back at the quote, you are correct. By the context, I had assumed it was referring to real estate assets, and residential real estate in particular.