[URBAN NOTE] "CMHC adds new cities to its list of overheated housing markets"

[rfmcdonald]

This, as described by the Toronto Star's Tess Kalinowski, is not at all good. Hamilton, too?

Canada’s housing agency says there is evidence of increasingly “problematic conditions” in the national home market, prompting it to upgrade its assessment of the country’s troubling signs from weak to moderate.

One of those signposts has been planted just down the road from Toronto in the neighbouring city of Hamilton.

A third-quarter report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) on Wednesday said overvaluation in Hamilton was similar to that of Toronto’s property market.

That means home prices are higher than would normally be explained by factors such as population, employment and income.

There’s no specific data proving Torontonians are moving west on the QEW in search of cheaper housing, said Abdul Kargobo, CMHC analyst for the city of about 520,000 people.

“But if we look back to 2013, we do see that Hamilton is attracting some buyers that are priced out of Toronto because Hamilton is relatively affordable,” he said.

The economic development department in Hamilton recently reported its average home price of $451,000 was nearly half that of Toronto’s $940,000.