P.S. Your referrals of family and friends is my greatest compliment.

Despite July's slight slip in housing starts,
economists point out plenty of reasons for optimism

Virginia Galt Globe and Mail Update
August 11, 2009

1) Housing starts are expected to rise
While the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts decreased to 132,000 units in July from 137,000 units in June, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says starts statistics – which mark the actual, shovel-in-the-ground beginning of construction – are expected to improve throughout 2009.

The reason?
“Over the next several years, housing starts will gradually become more closely aligned to demographic demand, which is currently estimated at about 175,000 units per year,” CMHC said.

2) Building permits have bounced up
This indicator of builder confidence and construction plans has made steady gains.

“Building permits not only held on to the big bounce in May, they were revised higher (to 15.5 per cent) and they rose again in June (up 1 per cent) in another sign that construction is recovering from the extreme lows earlier this year,” the Bank of Montreal said in a research note.

In June, the value of building permits was $5.2-billion, 1 per cent higher than the revised $5.1-billion measured for May. Residential permits rose 0.5 per cent to $2.7-billion, the fourth month in a row for an improvement. The increase in permits for single-family homes outweighed the decline in permits for multi-family buildings such as condos.

3) Resales soar in Canadian cities
Nowhere has the turnaround been more apparent than in July sales of existing homes in Canada's biggest cities, BMO reports.

“For instance, sales in Greater Vancouver were up a massive 89 per cent year-over-year, a world away from a 70-per-cent drop last November. Toronto is a little less frenetic, but managed to post a 28 per cent year-over-year gain in July.” Calgary and Edmonton also reported gains of more than 20 per cent year-over-year. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is expected to report further gains in national home resale activity later this week.

4) It's still a buyers' market, but prices are firming up
Economists expect that when CREA reports on the national picture Friday, the statistics will show that the prices are up about 4 per cent year over year.

Real estate agents are sleeping with their pagers again with the return of bidding wars in some local markets.
“New home prices are a bit slower to turn, and we believe Wednesday's report on that front will show a 3.2 per cent year-over-year decline for June,” BMO projects.

5) Affordable mortgages
“Nowhere is the benefit of record-low [interest] rates more apparent than in the housing market, where results have jumped 57 per cent in the past five months and look solid again in July,” BMO economist Sal Guatieri said this week. “The sharp drop in mortgage rates has almost single-handedly returned housing affordability to its long-term norm from the worst levels in 17 years,” Mr. Guatieri said.