CMHC turns up scrutiny of condo investors as concerns of overheated market grow

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Canada’s housing agency is set to publish results of a Toronto and Vancouver condominium-owner survey as it seeks to address economist and policy maker concern that not enough is known about what’s driving price gains, documents show.

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. surveyed condo investors — those who purchased at least one condo that isn’t the owner’s primary residence — in August and September 2013, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg through an Access to Information request. Most of the content, including the number of people Ottawa-based CMHC contacted, the survey questions and the results, was redacted.

Calls are growing louder for more detail about who’s investing in the nation’s condo market, including how much is owned by foreigners, and what the risks are. Policy makers have warned for the past half decade a bubble may be forming in Canadian real estate, and some analysts have said prices are as much as 20% overvalued.

Related Sharp rebound in buyer confidence fuels Toronto condo recovery, says Urbanation Housing market skewed by handful of hot cities, Canada Guaranty CEO says Homebuilding rebounds quicker than expected with 35% jump in condos and apartments The lack of condo-ownership data in Canada “is a shortcoming,” Sal Guatieri, senior economist in Toronto for Bank of Montreal, said by phone July 22. “The more data, the better the quality of the data, the better the policy making.”

CMHC’s Condominium Owners Survey will be “factual and provides a descriptive profile of condominium investors,” the documents show. The agency expects to release the results of its survey, which doesn’t give an estimate of the share of foreign and corporate investors, in early August, according to a July 25 e-mail from spokesman Charles Sauriol.

Lowest Rates

National home sales reached the highest level in four years in June and prices in Toronto and Vancouver are up 12% and 29% on the year, a realtor report this month showed. Historically-low mortgage rates are adding momentum, and the Bank of Canada has kept its benchmark policy rate at 1% since 2010.

The survey to be released in August is CMHC’s second attempt. The agency conducted a telephone survey of Toronto and Vancouver condo investors in August 2012 in response to “industry concerns about the extent and nature of condominium investment and its sustainability,” according to a mostly- redacted August 2012 CMHC board presentation. The survey intended to determine what investors planned to do with their units, how long they intended to hold them, what would motivate them to sell, how much they put down and the source of the downpayment.

That survey wasn’t publicly released because it “didn’t produce results that were reliable enough,” CMHC’s Sauriol said in his July 25 e-mail.

Foreign Investment

The housing agency is monitoring foreign investment in real estate by tracking land registry data, hosting investor round tables and conducting surveys into vacancy rates and rents, according to the 2012 board presentation.

“There is no comprehensive data source of foreign investors in the Canadian housing market,” CMHC Interim Chief Executive Officer Douglas Stewart said in an Aug. 21, 2013 memo to Canada’s Employment Minister Jason Kenney. “Although some estimates can be gleaned from some municipal land registries, those estimates are not reliable.”

Stewart’s memo was in response to Kenney’s questions from a CMHC briefing about foreign investment in the Canadian housing market, the documents show. Kenney also asked about the impacts of changes to the Immigrant Investor Program in Vancouver and Australia’s foreign investment policy.

Investor Roundtable

Participants at a Toronto condo investor roundtable that CMHC hosted in March 2012 cited unidentified brokers who estimated foreigners with no ties to Toronto account for about 2% to 3% of total condo purchases in the city, according to meeting minutes that don’t include participant names or affiliations. The minutes, included with the other documents obtained by Bloomberg, had already been made public.

Fifteen percent of the stock managed by rental management companies is owned by foreigners, based on filings of non-resident tax forms, according to the roundtable minutes.

Demand for Toronto condominiums pushed prices to new highs in the second quarter. The average price rose 2.8% from a year earlier to a record $554 per square foot, even as the number of high-rise homes in the pre-construction, under construction and occupancy phases reached a high of 105,027 units in the city, Urbanation Inc., a Toronto-based consulting company, reported July 25.

Condominiums account for more than 1.6 million Canadian households, or about 12%, and more than half of those are located in the three largest markets Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, according to Statistics Canada data.

“The gap between the importance of the real-estate market to the economy and the lack of publicly available information on it is mind-boggling,” Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, wrote in an April note to clients. “What is the share of foreign investors in the condominium market?”

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Lenders Worries – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

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Not many lenders go on record forecasting a housing bubble, but what they say in private surveys is another matter.

FICO, a consumer analytics firm, released poll results on Tuesday that show just how concerned lenders are about housing overvaluation. But its data, which was picked up by multiple media outlets, featured responses primarily from U.S. respondents. The opinions of Canadian lenders, alone, haven’t been fully reported.

Today, however, we got our hands on Canadian-specific data, and it revealed some surprising expectations.

FICO surveyed 54 risk managers in the Canadian lending industry, and asked the following questions:

1) “Looking at the industry as a whole, over the next six months, do you expect the supply of credit for residential mortgages to”

• Fall short of demand: 35% (said yes)
• Exceed demand: 5.5% (said yes)
• Meet demand: 59% (said yes)

Most lenders expect credit to simply meet consumer demand. But among those risk managers who didn’t, 19 out of 22 said credit availability would be insufficient for the remainder of this year. Over the next six months, the implications are that we could see a further growing real estate market, regulatory or mortgage liquidity constraints, and/or the possibility of smaller mortgage discounts.

2) “Looking at the industry as a whole, over the next six months, do you expect the level of residential mortgage delinquencies (of 90 days or more) to”

• Increase: 37%
• Decrease: 5.5%
• Stay about the same: 55%

Of those expecting a change, 20 out of 23 risk managers said delinquencies would increase. According to FICO, 60% said that a high debt-to-income ratio is its biggest concern when underwriting a mortgage/loan.

The questions are, is this concern warranted and, if so, will lenders be proactive and keep lending criteria tighter than normal?

3) “Looking at the industry as a whole, over the next six months, do you expect the level of home equity line delinquencies to”

• Increase: 38.8%
• Decrease: 11%
• Stay about the same: 50%

***********

FICO also asked, “If you are involved with residential mortgage lending, are you concerned that an unsustainable real estate bubble is inflating?”

A wide majority (more than 2 out of 3, or 68%) said that, yes, they were concerned about a growing bubble, versus 32% who expressed no such worries. Canadians’ degree of unease was notably higher than that of American respondents, 48% of whom expressed concern about overvaluation in the U.S.

This poll comes as home prices sit at or near record highs in most big metro areas. That’s despite the Finance Department applying the brakes with mortgage rule after mortgage rule.

Rob McLister, CMT (email)

Condo glass panels may look great, but you’ll pay more for heat and AC

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Mortgage rules may be tighter for the self-employed, but options remain – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

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If you are self-employed, live in a rural area or don’t have the best credit, you may find it increasingly difficult to get a mortgage.

Yet while tighter lending rules are making it harder for some people get approved by a bank, going to a second or third-tier lender isn’t something everyone is comfortable with.

Real estate experts say if you are self-employed, traditional lenders like the big banks may still lend you the money – it may just come at a higher interest rate, require a bigger down payment and increased scrutiny.

Customized products for the growing number of people who are self-employed often come with a minimum 10 per cent down payment instead of the usual five per cent, while the typical five-year closed rate for most is higher than what many banks are offering, said John Andrew, a real estate expert with Queen’s University.

Your chances are also better if you can show income tax records dating back a few years that suggest a steady income.

“If you can show your income tax records and things like that going back 10 or 15 years, and your income is fairly steady or even better, rising, they’re still going to consider you to be self employed, but you’re going to be about as well off as you can possibly be,” Andrew said.

“You’ll never be as good as somebody with a non-self-employed job, which is kind of ironic because you can still lose your job, and that’s the complaint that a lot of self-employed people have. They could be doctors or dentists or lawyers and be making $400,000 and have been doing it for 20 years, but at the end of the day, they’re still consider to be self-employed, and there’s always this suspicion that doesn’t apply if you can show a pay stub from your employer.”

Jason Scott, a mortgage associate with the Mortgage Group in Edmonton, says some people who are self-employed may also have difficulty getting approved by a traditional lender because the tax breaks available to them may make their income look lower than it actually is.

“If they’re being tax efficient, they’re paying more for that mortgage but they’re saving a lot of money on income tax,” he said.

Bad credit history is trickier, although some alternative lenders will still consider backing you if you can explain what happened.

“It has to have a story. It has to (give me) some sense as to why you were bankrupt,” said Matthew Robinson, chief executive of W. A. Robinson Asset Management Ltd., which backs mortgages through its Pillar Financial Services division.

“What happened? Were you sick? Did you go a through a divorce? (I need) a story that makes sense, not just that you had bad credit because you don’t know how to pay credit cards.”

That may get you a higher interest rate, but those lenders argue the rate is justified because of the risk attached, and because of the extra work that goes into verifying information and working to understand the circumstances that led to the bad credit.

“Everybody thinks they deserve a 2.99 (per cent) mortgage. But at the end of the day, a 2.99 mortgage is zero risk. It’s the lowest end of the scale,” said Robinson, whose company works with self-employed people, rural properties and also provides bridge financing for construction projects.

“If there’s any work involved, if there’s any administration on a any level, the bank cannot afford to do a 2.99 mortgage. There’s not enough room.”

He suggests talking to a mortgage broker who will have relationships with various institutions and be able to steer you toward the best mortgage for your particular situation.

“Mortgages are becoming so complex, and there are so many options for people, they should actually be using a mortgage broker even if they think they’re best client in the world,” says Scott, who has also written a book to help homeowners titled, Approved! Mortgage Advice for All Stages of Life.

“It becomes a case of you don’t know what you don’t know. There are so many strings and such fine print on mortgages these days that it really does pay to use a broker.”

Whatever approach you take, experts say there is always room to negotiate – whether on the mortgage rate or on the quality of your documentation.

And you would also be wise to put any mortgage documents you get from alternative lenders in front of a lawyer to make sure you are comfortable with the terms.

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Canadian home sales rise 0.8% to highest level in four years – Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

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Canadian existing home sales in June reached their highest monthly level in more than four years as prices continued to rise in some of the country’s hotter markets.

But the housing market is becoming an increasingly local story with the disparity between hot and cold markets growing across Canada, something the Canadian Real Estate Association emphasized in its monthly report on the market

“Sales have improved compared to their slower start earlier this year. That said, there are still important differences in how housing markets are faring depending on location,” said Beth Crosbie, president of CREA, in a release Tuesday.

In the country’s largest market, Toronto, there are few signs of a slowdown. The average sales price clocked in at $568,953 in June, a 7.1% jump from a year ago. Toronto sales were also up 12.3% from a year ago.

Check into Montreal and the average sales price climbed a tiny 0.9% from a year ago to $332,462 with sales activity up 3.4% from a year earlier. In the nation’s capital, Ottawa saw a 1.7% increase from a year ago to reach an average sale price $365,366. Sales in the capital climbed 4.4% from a year ago.

Western Canada continues to be red hot. Calgary June sales climbed 18.9% from a year ago, while the average sale price of a home jumped 5.5% during the same period, reaching $466,994. The country’s most expensive market saw a 29.4% increase in sales from a year ago as the average sale price reached $796,714 last month in Vancouver, a 4.4% increase from a year ago.

The better performing large markets continue to drive the overall housing numbers with sales up 11.2% from a year ago on a national basis and the average sale price climbing 6.9% during the same period, reaching $413,215.

Actual sales were up 0.8% in June from May, marking the fifth straight month that sales have climbed nationally. Sales rose in about half of all markets led by Vancouver where activity reached its highest level in almost three years.

Gregory Klump, chief economist with CREA, said there has been a burst in new supply, which reflects the slow start to the year caused by the harsh winter which led many sellers to delay listing their homes.

“In markets with tight supply and strong demand, the strength of sales in recent months reflects how many properties were snapped up once they finally hit the market,” said Mr. Klump. “Because the impact of deferred listings and sales has likely run its course, activity over the second half of the year may not be able to maintain the kind of pace we’ve seen over the past couple of months.”

Toronto-Dominion bank economist Diana Petramala said rising interest rates are likely to put downward pressure on prices.

“There are currently a record number of new homes under construction in many markets and history shows that a significant share of these units will end up on the market. In fact, we are already starting to market pressures easing in Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa and the Toronto condo market — where overbuilding was most prominent,” she said in a research note.

However, some economists remain worried markets may be overheating. “Canada’s housing market continues to look balanced overall, with stark disparities persisting at the regional level. That said, it is a tad concerning that prices are running firmly ahead of income growth in a few major cities. Calgary is understandable and Vancouver is shaking off a mild correction, but Toronto might be getting too hot for its own good,” said Robert Kavcic, senior economist with Bank of Montreal.

Household debt worries ease as pace of mortgage borrowing slows in May

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Royal Bank says Canadians have been slowing down the amount of debt they are taking on to buy real estate, easing concerns about household vulnerability.

The RBC paper notes that overall household debt accumulation remained flat-lined at 4.2 per cent growth in May, about the same level as the previous three months.

Outstanding mortgage debt stood at $1.23-trillion as the annualized growth slowed slightly to five per cent from 5.1 per cent in April.

But households increased their pace of non-mortgage borrowing, the bank says, to 2.2 per cent from two per cent in April.

RBC says the steady pace of debt accumulation overall should give some comfort to the Bank of Canada, which has called household debt the No. 1 risk to the financial system and economy.

With the housing market expected to moderate further, the vulnerability posed by overly indebted households is easing, RBC says, clearing the way for the Bank of Canada to move toward higher interest rates by mid-2015.

Meanwhile, business borrowing continued to strengthen in May, with short-term debt rising to 10.6 per cent from 9.6 in April.

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Fitch calls for more government action in ‘overvalued’ Canadian housing market

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The Canadian housing market is 20% overvalued and needs another round of government regulations to cool it, credit agency Fitch Ratings said Monday.

The statement is sure to add more fuel to the fire about what’s next for the next Canadian housing market which has seen a rebound in sales after a slow winter and new records for price set every month.

Fitch points to numbers from Canadian Real Estate Association which show home prices grew 7.1% in May on a year over year basis.

“According to Fitch’s sustainable home price model, which measures home prices relative to long-term fundamentals, Canadian home prices remain approximately 20% overvalued in real terms,” the Chicago-based company said in its statement.

It noted building permits have picked up in recent months along with sales, supported by historically low interest rates and those factors are driving up affordability.

Canadian home prices remain approximately 20% overvalued in real terms

Fitch also said household debt to disposable income, which reached a record high of 164.1% in the third quarter of 2013 before declining the next two quarters, is making the market “more susceptible” to shocks from higher unemployment or interest rate increases.

The federal government has intervened four times to slow the housing market, among the measures being shortening amortization lengths from 40 years to 25 years. It also tightened the rules around eligibility for government-backed mortgage insurance.

Fitch wants more regulation. “The long-term impacts remain unclear, and policy makers may be required to take additional steps over the short term to engineer a soft landing,” the agency said.

But the company’s statement comes as new data suggests the pace of house price gains are slowing on a national basis despite the fact there are still cities that continue to show price growth.

The Teranet Home Price Index increased 4.4% in June from a year ago, down from the 4.6% year over year jump in May.

The composite six index which covers Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax was up 4.9% in June from a year ago compared to a 5.1% year over year increase in May. Both the overall and the composite index were up 0.9% in June from May.

“With the housing market having now shaken off the winter blues, price are continuing to rise at a solid pace. That said, the continued deceleration in price growth on a year-over-year basis may be an indication that the Canadian housing market is becoming more balanced,” said Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Randall Bartlett.

Canadian consumers appear equally unconcerned about a major correction happening in the market, based on a new survey.

A poll released by Bloomberg and Nanos Research Group shows Canadians have not been this optimistic about the housing market since 2008. The survey found 47% of Canadians predict home prices will rise over the next six months versus 11.6% who said they would drop — the widest gap between the two numbers since 2009.

Long-time housing bear David Madani, an economist with Capital Economics, said those hopes may be unfounded.
He said prices typically move up over the summer season and low interest rates could support further short-term growth in the market.

“The recent declines in existing home sales-to-listings ratios in these markets suggest that further moderation, or outright declines, in the annual rate are likely in the coming months,” said Mr. Madani. “Given the recent drop in mortgage costs, a pick-up in home sales over the next few months might delay this price weakness until next year. But we still believe that the housing market is headed for a major correction over the longer term.”

Housing market skewed by handful of hot cities, Canada Guaranty CEO says – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

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Balanced. That’s the way the head of one of Canada’s two private mortgage default insurers sees the housing market today.

A day doesn’t go buy without some commentator or some media outlet suggesting the housing market is going to crash. But Andy Charles, the chief executive of Canada Guaranty, says much of that view is based on a national average skewed by a handful of hot markets.

“I think we need to keep in mind what is driving house price increases in Canada right now. It’s largely three cities, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver,” said Mr. Charles. “If you look to eastern Canada, we are seeing price decreases. I hesitate to look at Canada in one national framework when it’s three cities driving the increase.”

Statistics released by the Canadian Real Estate Association bear that out. Nationally, prices rose 6.9% in June from a year ago to $413,215 but if you look at the $21.2-billion in activity for the month, almost half can be attributed to the big three cities he’s talking about. Those cities are driving up the national average.

The steps the Department of Finance has taken over the years have been prudent and resulted in a much stronger marketplace

Mr. Charles agreed to sit down with the Financial Post and discuss the state of the market in the face of ongoing changes at his major rival, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Mortgage default insurance, which protects the bank in the event you can’t pay, is something every Canadian homeowner with less than a 20% down payment must have.

This week, Chicago-based credit agency Fitch Ratings jumped into the fray, saying the Canadian housing market was 20% overvalued and needed even more government regulation despite four previous moves by Ottawa to cool housing off.

Mr. Charles doesn’t believe the federal government needs to do any more at this point. “The steps the Department of Finance has taken over the years have been prudent and resulted in a much stronger marketplace,” he says.

The chief executive says mortgage insurers are keeping a close eye on the market and people they are insuring to make sure they can stay in their homes in a rising interest rate environment, should that play out.

“Our business is driven by the unemployment rate. People are generally going to stay in their homes, if they are working,” says Mr. Charles. “The unemployment rate is what we monitor carefully and is the significant indicator for our business.”

Some analysts suggest Canada Guaranty has secured as much as 13% of the mortgage default insurance market in the country in the four years since the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board took it over in 2010 and rebranded it. The share could jump with the federal government signalling it plans to scale back the role of CMHC in the marketplace.

“The changes at CMHC to date have been relatively modest, however the direction of CMHC that is evolving around reducing its exposure to the housing market is obviously a net positive for the private sector competitors,” said Mr. Charles. “CMHC has been a very positive contributor to our industry over the the last 60 years. It just doesn’t need to be the dominate player going forward, particularly when you have well-capitalized private players willing to prudently take on the housing market risk.”

Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Mr. Charles:

Q. Can you ever see a mortgage default insurance market that is totally privatized?

A. I would anticipate the government of Canada through CMHC continuing to be a player in mortgage default, just not at the current levels.

Q. At one point there were as many as six mortgage default insurers either in the Canadian market or planning to enter. Your company was originally owned by American International Group, Inc. before the group led by Teachers’ bought the company out. There are now only three players. Could we see more competition in the future?

A. When the financial crisis hit in the U.S., there was a lot of pressure to repatriate the capital from the Canadian marketplace. I’m not aware of any new competitors entering the marketplace.

Q. You are controlled by one of Canada’s largest pension funds. What has that meant to you in terms of market share?

A. We’ve been able to grow being 100% Canadian-owned with the sponsorship of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and our ownership team, overall we have been well-received by the marketplace. It is a key consideration, having well-known, well regarded ownership.

Q. How much competition is there really in the market? There are some things you insure that CMHC doesn’t, like second homes. But some might point to the fact CMHC increased premiums in May and private competitors were pretty quick to pass on the exact same increase.

A. It’s a fair comment. But you will always see nuances. If you think about it, the government of Canada, through a sandbox, really dictates the type of product offerings in the marketplace. You won’t see a lot of differentiation. You will continue to see some differentiation on some on the peripheral products. The larger question is how does CMHC move from being a dominant player to just a player in the space?

Q. The government backs CMHC insured mortgages 100% but only 90% for the two private companies, how important is that 10 percentage point gap?

A. I believe it’s less of a factor today. There are a number of reasons. One of them is the strength of the ownership team at Canada Guaranty. But the level of capital required [for insured mortgages] continues to increase, so there’s that buffer which is healthy for the housing market. All three mortgage insurers are now regulated by [Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions].

Q. Can you ever see a world where the government gets completely out of backing mortgage default insurance for companies like yours?

A. It would be difficult to fathom (as long as the CMHC is still in the marketplace with its government backing). The point I would emphasize is if the private sector competitors take on more of the risk, you are putting private capital in play before the government backstop can be triggered. That’s the important nuance to emphasize, it’s putting private capital at risk instead of public capital.

Q. Can you see mortgage insurance evolving into a more risk-based system where your premium is based more on individual risk factors like your credit score?

A. I don’t anticipate any movement in that direction in the short run. With CMHC being the dominant player, it becomes difficult to have price differentiation in the marketplace.

Illustration by National Post Graphics

Price surge fuels Canadians’ optimism about housing market to highest since before financial crisis – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

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Canadians are the most optimistic about the country’s real estate market in a more than six years as prices reignite.

The share of Canadians predicting higher home prices over the next six months rose to 47% last week, according to polling by Bloomberg and Nanos Research Group, the highest level since the survey began in 2008. That figure has risen 10 percentage points since April.

Get the latest data on Canada’s housing market

The data suggest Canadians are brushing off forecasts of a slowdown in a market some analysts have warned is unsustainable. Home prices rose 8.1% through the first five months of the year, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, compared with a 1.3% gain over the same period in 2013, and prices may be poised for further gains if expectations for rising home values continue to whet demand.

The behavior of buyers today would be “completely ridiculous, unless there’s an implicit assumption that there’s going to be capital gains involved, and that’s a mentality that you see in these long upswings in prices,” Ben Rabidoux, president of North Cove Advisors Inc., a research firm that specializes in housing, said in a phone interview last week.

The survey, part of polling for the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, is based on phone interviews with 1,000 people, using a four-week rolling average of 250 respondents. The results are accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The share of Canadians who expect a drop in real estate prices was 11.6%. At 35.4 percentage points, the difference between optimists and pessimists is the widest since 2009.

Confidence Boost

The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index — derived from survey questions on real estate, job security, personal finances and the economic outlook — rose to the highest in more than four years led by stronger expectations for housing, gaining to 60.5 in the week ended July 11.

“Consumer confidence in Canada is being noticeably propelled by views on real estate,” said Nik Nanos, chairman of Nanos Research Group.

The housing market is rebounding from a lull this winter that saw colder-than-usual temperatures put a temporary chill on construction activity and home sales. Buyers are also taking advantage of historically low borrowing costs, with the Bank of Canada over the past year downplaying the likelihood of interest rate increases and lenders this spring lowering five-year fixed mortgage rates to below three%.

Bank Stocks

Regulatory efforts, meanwhile, to keep overly indebted borrowers out of the market have failed to quell gains. A government decision in 2012 to tighten qualification requirements for mortgages led to a temporary slowdown later that year, only to see the market recover in 2013.

Investors have noticed. Canadian lenders, which hold more than C$1 trillion worth of mortgages, have been among the world’s best performers since the middle of 2013. The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Banks Industry Group Index has gained about 22% in U.S.-dollar terms since June 3, 2013, compared with about 5% for the Bloomberg World Banks Index.

Canada’s six largest banks are among the top 10 stock performers among North American banks over the past year, led by Toronto-Dominion Bank’s 30% gain.

The surge in prices, coupled with household debt levels near record highs, has prompted analysts including Dan Werner, an equity analyst at Morningstar Inc., to warn of a retreat.

Within the next five years a correction in Canada is “almost inevitable,” Werner said in a note to investors this month. Prices could fall 25% to 30%, he said.

Biggest Risk

Even at the Bank of Canada, where policy makers have said they see signs that household debt is stabilizing, the issue is still seen as the biggest risk to the Canadian economy.

Outside of a few small corrections, Canadian home prices have been on a steady ascent more than 15 years. They are up 77% over the past 10 years, according to the Teranet-National Bank Home Price Index, roughly 10 times the pace of U.S. housing, according to the seasonally adjusted S&P/Case- Shiller composite-20 home price index.
Bloomberg.com