cdr108
Senior Member
http://baystreet.money.ca.msn.com/quotedata/partners/msn/ca/the_economy.aspx
Some numbers:
"The debt-service ratio, the interest households must pay on their debt each month as a share of personal disposable income, climbed to a two-year high of 7.6% in [the first quarter of] 2011, despite still record low interest rates. Over the next year and a half, the expectation is that a future rise in interest rates will lift this ratio to the highest level in more than a decade."
As others have also suggested -- and evidence this week highlighted -- the TD economists note that consumers are tapped out and won't be the main driver of the rebound after "spending like gangbusters" over the past five to 10 years.
worry not 'doomer and gloomer' for debt-service ratios, price-income / price-rent ratios, historical R/E appreciation levels, negative cashflow, over 70+% population are homeowners, etc mean nothing.
Toronto is a world-class city you see, and foreign investors are more than willing to spend $700+psf because we're cheap compared to other cities, even though we have more developable land and lower densities.