Bubble trouble: buying an expensive house could make you a sucker or a donkey

Columnist Rob Carrick warns homebuyers against throwing wads of cash into Toronto’s competitive real estate in an oddly abusive story in yesterday’s Globe and Mail. Do so, he cautions, and you risk being a “sucker” or “donkey” who pays way above asking for a Toronto home immediately before the bubble (or balloon) bursts. And burst it must, says Carrick, either because homes will become too expensive for the majority of Torontonians, or because the federal government will pass regulations requiring rigorous tests for people looking to take out a mortgage, tougher limits on who would qualify, and higher down payments from those who do. Such measures might also quell the delusion that the housing market is always going to be this hot, one expert told Carrick. If so, we wonder, would people stop buying those condos cozied up to the Gardiner Expressway? Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »