We are living in rare economic times with unemployment at all time lows, the current adjusted rate is now at 6.0% in Canada, which is phenomenal. Alberta had 14,000 more jobs ? Holy cow, that is just an amazing concept to think of (hope this is not a “bubble” forming).
Canada’s economy continues to show strength, even with a dollar that is almost at par with the American Dollar, which has traditionally meant DOOM and DISASTER for Canadian jobs, but employment numbers continue to be strong, which makes one scratch ones head a bit.
Housing Prices are about 0.7% higher May to June which is not too bad in comparison to previous months, but again, this is skewed by a few key areas in Canada where housing prices continue to spiral up.
In Ottawa housing prices month over month were only up 0.1% and from June 2006 to 2007 is up 2.1%, which is about what inflation is at these days too. The Canadian year over year is at 7.1% but you only need to look at a few specific areas such as:
- Saskatoon 48% and Regina 22% year over year
- Edmonton 32% and Calgary 15% year over year
- Winnipeg 12%
And you see why the number is so high for Canada, but as long as we all keep employed it should be a good thing? Right?
In Ottawa houses seem to be sitting longer as well, however new houses are going up at a tremendous rate (it is very hard to get any tradesman to come and do a small job, they want to go to a large housing development site).
–C8j
It does seem a bit abnormal – things just feel weird out there. In Calgary however, I am seeing a lot of houses sit for sale for a lot longer than they did 6 months ago.
The Dividend Guy