Interesting read: Why didn't Canada's housing market go bust? From the Cleveland FRB

[roamer65]

http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/commentary/2009/0909.pdf

[thecrow]

1. Can you post the answer. please?

Some of us don't get pdf files.
thanks

[DBoon]

2. This appears to be the conclusion:

The Canadian and US market comparison suggests
that relaxed lending standards likely played a critical
role in the U.S. housing bust. Monetary policy was very
similar in both countries from 2000 to 2008, but housing
prices rose much faster in the U.S. than in Canada. This
suggests that some other factor both drove the more rapid
appreciation in U.S. prices and set the stage for the housing
bust. A likely candidate is cross-country differences in the
structure and regulation of subprime lending markets.

[roamer65]

4. Thank you. Very good synopsis.

From all the data presented, it appears that lending standards were way too lax in the US and that led to the bust. Canada's banking regulations still resemble a very strong version of Glass-Steagall and prevented the sub-prime market from forming in any appreciable manner in Canada.

We need to mirror their banking regulations.

[snot]

7. And now Obama wants to relax lending standards

as applied to the only part of our banking system that remains healthy, community banks, to get them to lend more.

[elifino]

3. Try this PDF reader

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/sumatra_pdf_portable

This is on of the portable apps I keep on my flash drive in my work in IT Support.

[thecrow]

5. Thanks!

Lots of useful stuff there

[OnlinePoker]

6. Unfortunately, Canadians have not been imune...

...to the lure of easing credit rates. As the following article points out, "Canada's debt-to-income ratio had climbed to a new high of 142% as of the end of June." Further into the article, it says a 3% rise in the benchmark Bank of Canada rate would send at risk households to over 8.5%, a modern high.

Forgot the link:

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2325273