Canadians building a housing bubble eh?

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian lenders are loosening standards, offering mortgages similar to U.S. subprime loans that pose an "emerging risk" to financial institutions, according to the country's banking regulator. Banks and other lenders are becoming "increasingly liberal" with mortgages and home-equity credit lines that don't require individuals to prove their income, according to 152 pages... [more]

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian lenders are loosening standards, offering mortgages similar to U.S. subprime loans that pose an "emerging risk" to financial institutions, according to the country's banking regulator. Banks and other lenders are becoming "increasingly liberal" with mortgages and home-equity credit lines that don't require individuals to prove their income, according to 152 pages of documents obtained by Bloomberg News under freedom of information law from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. The mortgages, typically granted to the self-employed and recent immigrants, "have some similarities to non-prime loans in the U.S. retail lending market," the documents show. "It just speaks to the general easing in lending standards, which has contributed to a booming housing market," said David Madani, an economist in Toronto with Capital Economics, which estimates that Canadian housing prices may fall 25 percent over the next few years. "The problem is sort of baked in now, so I'm not sure there's a way to prevent a weakening of the housing market." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/30/bloomberg_articlesLYKM8P07SXKX01-LYKV6.DTL#ixzz1kx1jJr00 [less]