Encouraging Report for Canada

Here is some interesting information from the International Monetary Fund.

Bess
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the International Monetary Fund published its world economic outlook earlier his year, it contained two pieces of research that which are particularly encouraging for Canada and the Canadian Housing market.

The first item defined as the “House Price Gap” shows, in percentage terms, how much higher (or lower) a country's average house price is compared with its fundamental worth. The IMF looked at Canada, the U.S., Japan, Australia and 13 European Countries. Out of all of these countries only two were reported to have average house prices less than their fundamental value, Austria, undervalued by 6% and Canada, undervalued by 2%. (See Table Below)

Ireland 30
Netherlands 25
Britain 25
Australia 22
France 20
Norway 20
Denmark 18
Sweden 18
Belgium 18
Spain 18
Italy 12
Japan 12
United States 10
Germany 5
Finland 2
Canada -2
Austria -6

The IMF also calculated the mortgage debt of various countries as a percentage of each country's GDP. Once again Canada fared well, with a housing debt equal to 50% of its GDP in comparison to the Netherlands and Denmark at 95%, Austria at 80%, Spain 60%, Ireland 70% and the U.S. at 78%.

These statistics confirmed what those of us who work in the Real Estate Industry have known for a long time and I am happy to share them with you.