Fixed or variable? A risk analysis
This post is 2 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.We’re at a somewhat unique moment in time for mortgage rates. One the one hand the gap between variable and fixed...
Category: Opinion
What happened to the real estate cycle?
This post is 2 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.Back in 2018, the mortgage stress test was introduced. Nearly overnight it knocked about 20% of the buyers out of a...
How many homes do we need?
This post is 2 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.It’s surprisingly difficult to answer the question of how much construction is enough. Most people (including past me) naively plot homes...
Will buying a home make you happy?
This post is 2 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.This may seem like a silly question to ask on a blog called househuntvictoria. Most of my readers are looking to...
Will climate change lead to an island population explosion?
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.I grew up in Salmon Arm, and my parents have an acreage there. They paid $75,000 for 160 acres in the...
The greedy developers
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.A common criticism of new developments is that developers will make an inordinate profit, and increased density is simply a cash...
The population inflection
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.For a long time population growth in the region was quite sedate and predictable, growing slowly at around 1%/year and that’s...
Homes for living and lots of them
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.You may have noticed that after more than 10 years of focusing only on housing analysis, I have been getting more...
How to fix the housing crisis
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.The housing crisis is complex and multi-faceted. If anyone ever tells you that we only need to do one thing to...
Dusting off the crystal ball
This post is 3 years old. The data and my views may have since evolved.If there’s one thing I’ve learned in a decade of analyzing Victoria’s housing market, it’s that you can’t predict the housing...