ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
Garth Turner
A best-selling Canadian author of 14 books on economic trends, real estate, the financial crisis, personal finance strategies, taxation and politics. Nationally-known speaker and lecturer on macroeconomics, the housing market and investment techniques. He is a licensed Investment Advisor with a fee-based, no-commission Toronto-based practice serving clients across Canada.
June 9th, 2021 | A Pox on Them
The Greater Fool - A year ago 60% of BCers said heaping more taxes on real estate would make it less expensive, proving many people will believe anything if told it often enough. This year that number is down to 42%. House detached house prices in YVR, meanwhile, have hit $1.8 million, up 23% since last May. As we […]
June 8th, 2021 | Let’s Worry
The Greater Fool - Kelowna has its charms. Hills. A big lake. Aquatic monster. The barmaids at Joey Restaurant. This BC town also looks like Mississauga in a Tommy Bahama shirt and has a real estate market just as nutso. As prices in the 905 have gone ballistic thanks to the unaffordability of Toronto, so has Kelowna erupted thanks […]
June 7th, 2021 | Truths
The Greater Fool - So 68% of the herd is dosed in Canada, at least partially. Provinces are pushing for 75% (Ontario) or 85% (NS) within a few weeks. Reopening will be faster, wider and wilder than seemed possible even weeks ago. Covid will go from pandemic to just endemic. Like the flu. You won’t hear daily case counts […]
June 6th, 2021 | Reptilian
The Greater Fool - Days ago this blog told you about Willow. That’s the outfit seeking to establish a fund which will buy real estate with 100% funding (mortgages and crowdfunding) then pay unit-holders an undetermined return. Willow will make money from real estate fees, transaction charges and a 1% MER. Then it will go to an IPO in […]
June 4th, 2021 | Look Out
The Greater Fool - On Wednesday local Ottawa politicians will thumbs-up an empty-house tax. The average property sells for $742,000 now (+35% in a year), so the tax would be $600 a month on a place not rented or owner-occupied for 184 days a year. Of course, Vancouver does this, too. The tax there is an astonishing 3% of […]
June 3rd, 2021 | Hitting the Wall
The Greater Fool - Tougher stress test. Mortgage creep. Buyer fatigue. It’s all having an impact on the market. See the stats below. But the biggest impact of all? That’s price. Now that less than 16% of all Canadians can afford real estate we’re hitting that inevitable, hulking wall of absolute unaffordability. Governments and central bankers ignored the effects […]
June 2nd, 2021 | Light it up
The Greater Fool - One day this week, I told Dorothy this morning as I left for the wee bank, expect to see a few courier boxes arrive on the porch. Contactless delivery, of course. “Presents?” she cooed, expectantly. Well, kinda, I said. For Canada. Days ago I ordered enough fireworks to win a smallish rebellion somewhere. The intention […]
June 1st, 2021 | Epiphany
The Greater Fool - Will people give up on housing because conditions are, well, insane? The latest real estate board stats (later this week) may shed some light on that. But the anecdotal evidence is sure flooding in. Realtors report fewer showings, a decline in bidding wars and ‘offer nights’ where an expected deluge of paper during a blind […]
May 31st, 2021 | Property for the People
The Greater Fool - Imagine if, for a lousy hundred bucks, you could become a real estate investor. Own a piece of a property. Collect income. Be a rentier capitalist landed-gentry dude. And stop watching the endless parade of housing profits pass you by. It’s a Millennial-Gen Z dream come true. Enter Willow. “Property for the People,” says the butter-slick […]
May 28th, 2021 | Giving Up
The Greater Fool - The kids are pissed. Rightly so. This may not end well for T2. A final straw might be this week’s announcement that Ottawa will hand over $5,000 to anybody who wants it – and owns a house – for a quick reno. Windows. New furnace. Insulation. New doors. If it looks vaguely ‘green’, it qualifies. […]
May 27th, 2021 | Shades
The Greater Fool - Well, we told ya. Follow the money. Thursday was epic. Three of the Big 6 banks confirmed what must be obvious to everyone, save the doomers, nihilists, pantywaists and GOFs (grump old farts) who live in the nether regions of this blog. What did we learn? First, the pandemic is over. At least on […]
May 26th, 2021 | Money Machines
The Greater Fool - Right on cue the first of the Big 6 banks did a triple-bagger. BeeMo announced Tuesday it made over $2 billion in the latest three-month period despite the recession and record low interest rates. Oh yeah, and a pandemic. Earnings momentum was down a little from earlier, thanks mostly to the Third Wave, but that […]
May 25th, 2021 | Juiced
The Greater Fool - This is hump day, apparently. It’s the moment when more than half the US population has been jabbed. According to Wall Street that’s the net effect of 164 million people (61% of the population) having had a first dose and 130 million who are fully vaccinated. New shots are being administered at the rate of […]
May 24th, 2021 | BOMAD
The Greater Fool - The venerable Bank of Mom’s been in the headlines again. MSM outlets – TV and print (what still remains) – have been churning out copy on how parental money is the only possible way that adult spawn (many Millennials are now closing in on 40) can get a house. Here’s an interesting quote in the […]
May 21st, 2021 | More Stress
The Greater Fool - We’re ten days from a mortgage crunch. This week the Trudeau gang capitulated and will be making it harder for first-time buyers to get home loans. It’s not a bombshell. But it’s a bullet. Aimed at the heart of real estate speculation. Effective June first everybody applying for financing – those with 20% or more […]
May 20th, 2021 | Gas the Car
The Greater Fool - The reopening trade continues. You ready? Jobless claims in the States have fallen to the lowest point in the pandemic. Ontario is announcing its reopening plan. Quebec’s already there. In NYC a mask-burning party took place on East 51st Street. “Vaccinated New Yorkers, liberated by the coronavirus vaccination and repealed protocols, torched their medical, surgical, […]
May 19th, 2021 | Yup, it’s Here
The Greater Fool - Have you noticed value stocks are hot lately? WFH ones are not. There’s a reason for this. The pandemic is ending. The reopening trade has pushed equity markets into record territory for months now. About 160 million Americans have been jabbed and this week Canada passed the 50% mark. Once vaccinations hit 70% or above, […]
May 18th, 2021 | Moister Madness
The Greater Fool - Turns out that April was an better month than March to buy property. May is even moreso. June and July could be worse. And the last thing you ever want, we’re told, is to in a bidding war with a hungry, desperate, house-lusty Millennial. Here are the stats: sales across the country down 12% last […]
May 17th, 2021 | The Spike
The Greater Fool - If you’ve bought anything lately, you know. We’re in a price storm. Pandemic-fueled demand has crashed into Covid-caused supply chain messes and the result’s been inflation. Lumber is insane. Houses are unattainable now save for move-up buyers and the wealthy. There’s a chip crisis. Try buying a Peloton. Or a purebred GSD. A boat or […]
May 16th, 2021 | The Yield
The Greater Fool - Where, oh where, to invest? As my fancy colleague Doug mentioned yesterday, when crazy genius rocket-Tesla dude Elon Musk called crypto Dogecoin a “a hustle’ on SNL last week, the coin plunged in value. Then Musk ratted on Bitcoin just months after inflating it. Tesla won’t be taking that fake-money as payment anymore he said, […]
May 14th, 2021 | The Bond
The Greater Fool - Why would you live with someone, marry them maybe, buy a house and have a kid or two together, yet not trust them with money? Weird. But it’s common. Perhaps this is why four in ten unions fail. No wonder arguments about money are the greatest predictor of marriage breakdown. And lots of studies show […]
May 13th, 2021 | Fun Money
The Greater Fool - Matt’s easy to hate. A wealthy, uppity Millennial. But he comes here daily, which is refreshing. If you can’t be poor, at least be humble. “Love the blog, it’s fantastic,” he says, in an acceptable MSU. “The advice has kept me out of the housing market, invested, and as I turn 30 this year I […]
May 12th, 2021 | Recency
The Greater Fool - A new crypto launched Monday had a market cap of $45 billion US by Wednesday morning. Real estate values in wee Lunenburg have inflated 63%. A guy on Instagram boasted he just got a home equity line of credit so he could purchase plywood. Doctor copper is up 40% lately. The federal government is now […]
May 11th, 2021 | The Reentry
The Greater Fool - Fourteen months ago this pathetic blog said pandemics are temporary. They suck hard. Then they pass. None has ever been permanent. Just wait. Stay invested. Wear your mask. Chill. This one’s now in the process of cresting and retreating. Vaccines 1, bug 0. But back in March of 2020 nobody seriously thought Toronto would still […]
May 10th, 2021 | The Big Suck
The Greater Fool - Okay, go check your latest RRSP statement. If you see these three letters – DSC – written after the name of a security some dude sold you, you’re in jail. It’s the Mutual Fund Prison, designed to prevent people from doing what they should – which is breaking out. Once upon a time mutuals were […]