Peg realtor Linda van den Broek:
Nothing subtle about this market

Six hundred thousand over asking?

That was the word from an awestruck Global News reporter, as she stood in front of a Toronto home that had just sold for a mere $200,000 over list. The report, with no small irony, came moments after the latest job loss numbers – another 45,000 gone, twice economists’ forecast.

But it ain’t just Toronto, of course. In Winnipeg these days realtors say one in three sales is the result of a bidding war. Over 1,300 houses sold there last month, 30% of them over asking, the highest reported premium being $52,000.

And in Vancouver, now arguably the greatest bubble city in North America, more than 4,000 homes changed sweaty hands in July – a record. Frenzied buyers have pushed the average price up 9% this year, with the median at $528,000, and SFD units averaging north of seven.

Meanwhile the country has lost 483,000 net jobs since October. The currency has shot to a level where it will cost tens of thousands more positions. The federal government has plunged into the largest deficit in history. Our two mega-provinces have announced sweeping sales tax increases for the months to come. Oil has damn near doubled in price, sucking off family cash flow. The auto industry almost lost it. And you are not paying a single dollar less in income tax – unless you spend $10,000 on a new hot tub.

As the last post attempted to show, when you combine bidding wars with record low downpayments, equity-less homeowners and legions of people who can only buy because of manipulated mortgage rates, well, the threat of an underwater nation is real.

But you won’t hear that on Global’s nightly cast.

Or news the network’s parent just screwed bondholders out of $18.5 million by defaulting on an interest payment.

Did I ever mention this won’t end well?