CMHC Releases 2008 Report on Housing in Canada

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released their annual Canadian Housing Observer today. The 115-page report examines the state of Canada’s housing market from a variety of perspectives, combining national coverage with provincial and metropolitan detail. The report discusses influences on housing demand, current market developments, housing finance, housing affordability, sustainable communities, and other topics.

The report is full of useful statistics and analysis but fails to provide much insight into the global financial crisis and the effect that it may have on the Canadian market. The section of the report entitled Housing Finance, pg 41, discusses Canada’s exposure to the sub-prime mortgage crisis but rather unhelpfully concludes that “Canada’s housing finance sector and housing markets are relatively unscathed by the sub-prime crisis in the United States”.

It is true that Canada was not as exposed to the sub-prime market as many other western countries, however, we do not live in isolation and are therefore still susceptible to ripple effects. Statistics Canada, for example, reported on Thursday that Canada’s trade surplus declined by more than $1-billion in September, to $4.5-billion – a nine-month low – as exports declined and imports rose. It was also predicted today that almost 100,000 jobs will be lost in the first 3 months of 2009 as Canada enters its first recession in 17 years. Surely, such loses will have an effect on the Canadian housing market.

If you have an opinion please leave your comments below.

The CMHC Canadian Housing Observer report can be found at:
http://www.cmhc.ca/observer/