David & Mark Goodman

The first speaker at the Canadian Apartment Investment Conference held Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center was Benjamin Tal Deputy Chief Economist, CIBC World Markets.   Tal boldly stated, straight out of the gate, that America’s Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernake and Bank of Canada’s Finance Minister Mark Carney, have no clue what is going on in world economic markets and suggested that the current financial situation is very uncertain. According to Tal, the key question we should ask is what these two individuals are going to do from a fiscal management standpoint, as they have no precedence or experience for steps they should be taking to address the financial crisis.

David Goodman
April 29th, 2008

Since 2001, the apartment market has been on a tear. Prices have at least doubled, while buildings transactions at an annual basis have tripled to approximately 150 buildings a year. The market at present is catching its proverbial breath. On a year to year basis, to end of April, sales of apartment buildings in Greater Vancouver are down about 30%. Listings, both MLS and exclusive, have shown substantial increases. Having experienced a number of market slowdowns over the past 25 years, this is the first one I can remember occurring in an environment of inexpensive money.