Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Edmonton mortgage defaults June 2009 and media sensationalism


I just came across a "news" article in the Edmonton Journal today. The title is Mortgage Defaults Soar!!!! http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/Mortgage+defaults+soar/1723557/story.html Now, I like to present facts and stats, but I really had to laugh at some of the points the article brought up. One "stat" that really stood out was, and I quote "ForeclosuresCanada.com,which tracks Alberta court filings for property investors--but doesn't provide data with the same level of detail as the province--listed two-and-a-half times more Edmonton foreclosures between this January and early May than in the same period two years ago." Now, anybody that had a remote involvement in Edmonton real estate in early 2007 knows that this was the hottest period of sales we have ever had. In fact, the most homes we ever sold in one month was in May 2007 (2839 sales). Sale prices were climbing 5% per MONTH in early 2007. To see a home go into foreclosure in early 2007 was a complete oddity. So, any market would have more foreclosures than that time, I am actually surprised there were only 2.5 times as many. To be fair, I also know that Real Estate Boards tend to put a positive spin on everything. I'm not defending that either. But, this headline is just sensationalism. I guess it gets attention, kind of like Elvis is Alive, or I am Bigfoot's love child.

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