Who will lead the housing recovery?

Well according to the following article from the Canadian Press (as reported by CBCnews.ca) the first time home buyer will.

Quoted from article: Lower home prices and shifting demographics mean first-time buyers could lead a rebound in Canada’s real estate market, experts said Wednesday at a real estate conference in Toronto.

Phil Soper, president and CEO of Brookfield Real Estate Services, said rookies are the largest category of buyers in the real estate market, accounting for close to 70 per cent of all transactions at the height of the housing boom.  However, they’ve been scared away in droves by the economic downturn, which was led in part by record foreclosure rates in the United States as homeowners defaulted on their mortgage debt. Such a lack of first-time buyers can grind the real estate market to a halt, Soper told Scotiabank’s annual real estate outlook conference. “When new buyers stop entering the market, it’s like sand in the gears,” he said.

At AltaPacific MIC we’re mindful and watchful of the changing housing market.  We certainly are not exposed like many others in the market right now (contact us to learn why).  AltaPacific Mortgages is connected to a healthy pipeline of potential funding deals and our lending committe uses their experience and wisdom in choosing the best deals to fund.  When the market recovers, whenever that might occur – and for whatever reasons that trigger it, we feel well suited to take full advantage of it.  We’d be happy to provide you with careful and honest guidance on your next investment decision.  We believe in Canadian mortages and investing in Canadian real estate… and we think you should too.

AltaPacific Mortgages

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CMHC Housing Market Outlook

It might be 35 pages long but CMHC’s Housing Market Outlook gives some good insight into Canadian Housing starts, Canadian Resales, and Canadian Resale Prices.

Page 3 includes Trends at a Glance and includes comments on everything from mortgage rates to employment to vacancy rates.

Page 5 has a special report on specific city rental market outlook for 2009; including Vancouver rental outlook, Victoria rental market, Calgary rental outlook, Kelowna rentals, Edmonton rental market and more…

Page 9 has the summary on Real Estate in British Columbia

Page 10 has the summary on Real Estate in Alberta

Plus much more…

AltaPacific Mortgages

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Canadian house price index from Teranet and National Bank of Canada

You might appreciate this Canadian house price index from Teranet; in alliance with National Bank of Canada. When you have some time, peruse the index and view a different weighted average for Canadian house prices, as well as regional price indexes for House prices in Vancouver and House prices in Calgary.

There’s a lot of talk lately about house prices across this country, including this article in the Financial Post where the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) claims the figures are misleading when looking at them nationally (granted article is a couple months old but it is interesting to go back and read the news from 2 months ago).  More currently, yesterday’s news article on CBC.ca talks about how Buyers won’t find U.S.-style fire sales on foreclosed homes and focuses primarily on the foreclosure properties in Alberta.

The most experienced folks in real estate often use three familiar words; location, location, location… and certainly the location of your home will determine how your house prices is being affected.  At AltaPacific Mortgages, location is certainly an extremely important element to our consideration of lending on a deal.  Like you, we’ll keep a close watchful eye on house prices in markets across Western Canada.

AltaPacific Mortgages   

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Obama’s visit to Canada and news from CMHC on housing

Thursday February 19th 2009 marked the day of US President Barrack Obama’s first visit to Ottawa.  

Today we also saw the following article released by CMHC – Housing will Continue to Moderate in 2009.

How are these related?  

Well when we heard Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barrack Obama speak of their commitment to an ongoing strong relationship between our two countries; including stimulus packages that consider economic recovery for both countries, one can start to feel some renewed confidence into the future of Canada and the USA.  We even heard Democratic President Obama say “tax cuts” – I’m sure  Harper liked those words.  In addition, Obama was aware enough to know – and state – that $1.5billion dollars in DAILY trade occurs between our two countries.  This only underscores the importance of strong cohesive ties. 

So what does this have to do with the CMHC.ca article?  Well, it speaks to predictions in one of the most critical economic indicators in this country – 2009 housing starts and existing home sales.  And since so much of our country’s economic condition (whether it be tied to the manufacturing sector in the eastern provinces or oil and gas in Western Canada) is tied to the condition of the US economy, we are encouraged when we hear news that could stimulate confidence in all areas of the Canadian economy.  Of course, we all appreciate that 2009 housing starts and existing home sales will not match 2007 and 2008 (well, the first half).

Here at AltaPacific Mortgages we’re convinced that investing in Canadian real estate – or as we encourage, investing in Canadian mortgages through our mortgage fund – is a good choice for investor portfolios.   

Some key stats and predictions from the CMHC article - Existing home sales, as measured by the Multiple Listing Service (MLS^®), are expected to decline 14.6 per cent during 2009 to 370,500 units.  In 2010 the level of MLS^® sales is expected to increase by 9.3 per cent to 405,000 units. The average MLS^® price is also expected to decrease over the course of 2009. Average prices are forecast to be $287,900 for 2009, a decline of 5.2 per cent, while 2010 will see little change from 2009 average prices.

If you are a Canadian investor interested in how you can invest your RSP, RRSP, RRIF or private placement funds in a mortgage pool, please feel free to contact us.  We will work to provide you with careful and honest guidance to make your next investment decision secure and profitable.

AltaPacific Mortgages   

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Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure

That’s right… Canada

Did you know that the Toronto Dominion Bank was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn’t grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. America’s ranked 40th, Britain’s 44th.

Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize.

How is all this so?  Well, Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada’s more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

The points above come directly from the following article, published online last Saturday, and to be published in the February 16, 2009 of Newsweek.  It  is an excellent review of the state of Canada and the Canadian banking system – Newsweek – Worthwhile Canadian Initiative (by editor Fareed Zakaria).

At AltaPacific Mortgages we feel energized and positive about the future of investing in Canadian real estate and investing in Canadian mortgages.  Investing in a mortgage pool (for Canadian real estate) makes sense for many Canadian and foreign investors who desire preservation of capital with potentially healthy returns.  If you have RSP, RRSP, RRIF or private placement funds that you’d like to place in an investment vehicle like AltaPacific private shares, please feel free to contact us for more details.

What to do as Western Canadian home prices fall and B.C. homes sales (in units) drop by an estimated 19% this year

Yesterday’s Globe and Mail video features Canadian Real Estate Association Chief Economist Gregory Klump.

This news on housing starts and falling house prices across Canada paints a bleak picture so how can Canadian investors capitalize during times like this? We think investing in Canadian real estate and investing in Canadian mortgages through companies like AltaPacific Mortgages is a choice worth looking into. That might sound a little odd considering the latest news; but we feel that companies like ours are poised to deliver healthy returns to investors during times like these.

Investing in Canadian mortgages (Western Canadian mortgages which is AltaPacific’s specialty) is a smart way to invest RSP, RRSP, RRIF, or private placement funds if you’re aligned with a group of professionals that are experienced and who operate with integrity and honesty towards their investors and mortgage holders. While some larger financial institutions and well established mortgage companies struggle to deal with loans placed in recent years, AltaPacific’s lending guidelines in today’s market conditions are expected to mitigate investment risks. We fund only the best deals available to us in Western Canadian real estate and we expect investors in AltaPacific to see excellent returns in 2009 as we select mortgage opportunities that generate high yields.

Is AltaPacific more cautious due to current market conditions? yes.

Are we more excited about opportunities today because of market conditions? yes.

While current housing starts and real estate stats can be concerning in Western Canada; there are great opportunities in times such as these. AltaPacific is well suited and experienced to source and fund quality mortgage and real estate opportunities.

Many home owners, RSP investors and private placement investors have a lot of questions as uncertainty and less than positive news comes out from the many news sources. We invite investors (current and potential) to contact us to learn how AltaPacific MIC is using funds to generate healthy returns for investors.