Housing bubble has already burst says BMO’s Porter

Not everyone agrees that Toronto has been in a housing bubble but BMO’s chief economist is in no doubt.

“By any traditional definition, we were in the grips of a full-on bubble earlier this year,” Doug Porter told CBC’s Metro Morning on Friday. He backed that up with stats on house prices rising 40% in around 15 months, a situation last seen in the late 1980s which was widely accepted as a bubble.

Porter continued that the Ontario government’s measures to cool the market helped burst the bubble.

Although prices remain elevated in the GTA, there has been a 13% drop in four months and Porter expects softening to continue with a “full-blown buyer’s market ahead.”

He believes that further interest rate rises will continue to affect affordability even as prices ease, with first-time buyers still facing challenges to homeownership.