I think this video concisely illustrates that our real estate market seems to be stretched to it's limits. One of the really shocking statistics that gets pulled out in the video is that in Canada there is 1 real estate agent for every 245 adults/ 131,000 carpenters.
Most of us have gone the majority of our lives watching housing prices skyrocket in Canada, but that seems like an unrealistic expectation of the future. By most accounts Canadians are stretched to their financial limits and future generations are expected to have less wealth. Typically a home has to double in value in order to break even as an investment and it's hard to think that there is much room left for the real estate market to grow. Do people really think that other people are going to be willing to pay $1M for a crappy bungalow 20 years down the road?
Even a 15% downturn on a home would create a mountain of debt for the homeowner. The best case scenario for a Canadian purchasing a home doesn't seem very rosey, and the worst scenario would be complete financial disaster. Things could very well turn out fine here, because this is Calgary after all and we have a pile of oil in our backyard.
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