Has it really been since 2020?
I could have sworn that we interviewed Ben a second time, somewhere in the past two years.
In 2020, we received thirty-eight questions for Ben from the readers and the interview generated a whopping one-hundred fifty-two comments here on TRB!
For those that have been living under a rock and aren’t familiar with Ben’s work, he is the founder and president of North Cove Advisors, a boutique market research firm.
Ben is one of the most prominent voices on the Canadian real estate market and has been featured in essentially every major Canadian media publication, online or print, television or social media.
I’ve known Ben for about ten or twelve years now; tough to say, time flies!
His Edge Realty Analytics provides the best real estate market research in the country.
We’re lucky to have Ben here next week to talk shop and answer questions on housing, mortgage and consumer credit, economics, employment and population dynamics, and everything in between!
If you have a question for Ben, please post in the comments below, and we’ll post the interview on Wednesday and Friday of next week.
hoob
at 7:58 am
For houses that “need some work”, has there been any noted shift from buyers who are flippers, vs buyers who are OK with livable if dowdy properties? Have the margins and carrying costs disrupted the low-end/hobby house flipping buying pool more than people who actually need a home?
Brad
at 8:38 am
General thoughts on the BOC raising rates in a manner not seen since the 1980’s? Benjamin Tal hates it. Would love your $0.02. 👍🏻
Libertarian
at 9:56 am
Are Ben and Appraiser still best friends?
Graham
at 10:11 am
I’d appreciate some thoughts from Ben on the affects on the housing market of the increasing number of international students at Ontario colleges and universities, and on a completely different topic, why nuclear power is the best and better than all the rest.
Ed
at 2:41 pm
I do not understand the labour market and unemployment. How are we near all time lows for unemployment right now while at the same time talking about a recession? Do the young influencers and kids living in their parents basement not count as unemployed and that’s why it’s so low? Does canada NEED the 500k immigrants every year to fill the labour market?
Jimbo
at 4:08 pm
I think the labour market has grown as well. So, more people working than before
Marina
at 2:46 pm
1. What’s a reasonable way out of the affordability crisis? If prices are not falling with the rate increases and new builds are just as expensive, and we can’t build fast enough, what happens next?
2. How big do you think the recession will be and where will house prices be next summer?
Caris
at 4:01 pm
Will not hold you to this – when do you predict the first rate cut?
Also would appreciate any colour as to when/why and what has to happen.
Katherine
at 10:00 pm
Is the reason we are not seeing more stress on the market due to the fact that buyers locked into 5 or 10 year fixed rate mortgages ? Prices haven’t fallen much and not many recent purchase resales from what I see on HouseSigma. I just don’t get it – why are prices so high?!!!
Chris
at 4:24 pm
If David ran for the Mayor of Toronto would you have voted for him over Olivia Chow? What do you think his biggest strength and greatest weakness as Mayor would be?
Artyom
at 6:15 pm
Why is the interest rates still climbing when Lib party member like appraisal and ace squawk that inflation is actually at 0% and Trudeau is done amazing job???
Ace Goodheart
at 6:57 pm
Because neither of us work for the BoC?
Because Tiff had a tougher set than I thought he did?
Because Trudeau cannot fire the head of the BoC (even though Pierre thinks he can)?
Because studying civics is not required to become PM (or to be a conspiracy theorist – though man, you really need your truck convoy – no echo chamber for you here…).
Just to really annoy him – I am actually warming up to Olivia. Imagine, a mayor who actually understands how civics works? First thing she does is point out that the Feds aren’t funding stuff that they are legally obligated to fund.
I’m thinking to myself “this lady understands civics. No one understands civics. That is the class you sleep through in high school ….but she understands it”
M
at 7:24 pm
How would you rank these answers…
With the rapid rise in interest rates, the housing market hasn’t fallen further because:
A) Financial Institution accommodation for variable rate mortgage holders
B) Population growth
C) Owners and buyers are sufficiently capitalized
Second question…
If stress begins to appear in the housing market do you believe that the federal government will sit idle and allow market forces to dictate prices? And if not what regulation changes do you believe are the most likely to be enacted?
Thank you David and Ben 🙂
Hades
at 11:11 am
Ben: how are mortgage defaults so low and how hard will the federal government push to stop them from happening?
Also: I thought we had maximum 30 year amortization’s. Why am I hearing about 90 years in the media?
Vancouver Keith
at 2:42 pm
Are we heading for a market freeze up where people pretty much stop putting their homes on the market, because no one can afford to move up and seniors choose to age in place in record numbers. Could we see sales volume plummet and prices stick sideways.
JL
at 2:57 pm
Given the economic path we’re on, do you think there is an eventual breaking point when something has to give (i.e. fundamentals improve or real estate prices plateau or fall)?
To me it seems like every lever to “keep the party going” has already been pulled (prices already high and detached from income where even 90th percentile double-income is in many cases no longer sufficient, down-payment gifts and parental support routinely tapped, debt levels maxed, general income levels not rising, cost of living rising, living standard squeezed – e.g. falling home and condo unit sizes, interest rates can’t be lowered or will fuel inflation, etc). Even immigration may eventually taper off if economic immigrants wont find the proposition sufficiently attractive anymore, and even with population growth, prices can’t rise if there will be no new/untapped money to fuel the spending.
Would appreciate your thoughts as to whether you would agree that this is long term-unsustainable and can’t go on without something breaking, and specifically whether this may lead to an eventual breaking point for real estate, when prices can no longer increase further simply because all the factors underpinning their growth the past two decades will have been fully exhausted.
PS: Regular reader of your posts; appreciate your insights.
JL
at 3:12 pm
Recessions and slow-downs have been a standard accepted part of economic cycles, but it seems that over the last few decades governments have done whatever possible to essentially avoid them altogether (debt, super low rates, QE, etc), largely borrowing from the future to maintain the present, and seemingly at all costs. Do you think this approach has contributed to a more volatile “artificially” fueled economy (i.e. one not driven by productivity and detached from fundamentals), that could lead to an ever growing problem “down the road” when all these supports are eventually tapped out or need to be unwound?
Jason
at 11:38 am
The government debt in the USA is $32 Trillion. That’s $97k pp
The government debt in Canada is $1.2 Billion. That’s $30k pp
Does any of this matter anymore? The US is never going to pay off that debt. It will be a quadrillion dollars by the time my kids are adults.
Canada used to talk about paying off debt. Does it matter? Should we actually try to achieve this?
Anwar
at 10:22 pm
Ben, do you have data for housing starts and housing completions?
How are we prepared (or not?) for the coming immigration boom?
Also, has the increase in rates halted construction?
Thank you.
tspare
at 10:32 am
Given Toronto just passed the new rules about multiplex zoning, are there any interesting regulatory changes in the horizon? i.e zoning, builder fees, etc?