Canadian home prices slipped $6,600 on average in August, largely due to declines in Alberta.
Price are still up 11.2% year-over-year, however.
One factor we’ll be watching now is “borrowability.” That’s our own crude measure of how hard it is for the average Canadian to get a mortgage with “good” terms.
Lately it’s been getting harder and harder to place less-creditworthy borrowers. Our gut feel is that this credit tightening might soon spread more into “Alt-A” loans, and that could affect Canadian home prices.
Alt-A mortgages are also known as “Alternative A” mortgages. Basically they are mortgages for people with better credit than subprime borrowers but not quite prime.
Miscellaneous Stat: Garth Turner says Canadians have over 80% of their net worth in real estate.