Expectations for Canada’s housing market are heating up, with more than half of respondents in a weekly telephone survey predicting home prices will rise, the first time the measure has topped 50 percent in records dating back to 2008.
The bullishness comes even as a run on deposits at Toronto-based mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. leads to heightened scrutiny of a market which policy makers have said is divorced from economic fundamentals. The broad Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index fell to 59 in the week ended March 5.
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“Consumer sentiment on real estate has gone from hot to hotter,” said Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos… [The new foreign buyer’s taxes] haven’t led to more bets on a price decline either, and housing optimists now outnumber pessimists by a factor of five to one.
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Housing was the only upbeat note in the latest survey, with declines in three other major categories of job security, personal finances and the overall economy. The 22.4 percent who saw a stronger economy in six months was the lowest since January.