Are we in a housing bubble”? Warren Buffett has called a housing bubble. Speaking at the 2006 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Buffet said:

“What we see in our residential brokerage business … is a slowdown everyplace, most dramatically in the formerly hottest markets….The day traders of the Internet moved into trading condos…We’ve had a real bubble to some degree. I would be surprised if there aren’t some significant downward adjustments, especially in the higher end of the housing market.”

Vancouver Housing Market Blog is a Vancouver blog that has been talking about a housing bubble for months. I could be wrong, but I think the $600 per square foot prices at the W are a sign that something’s wrong. Who’s going to pay $3000 a month to rent a 2BR on East Hastings? A lot of people want to escape suburbia, but they can do that for $1500 over in the West End or even Yaletown.

(c) 2006 by Andrea Coutu. Vancouver Marketing Consultant. All rights reserved.