The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Canadian house prices continue to rise

From Teranet:

"Canadian home prices in June were up 13.6% from a year earlier, according to the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index™. The 12-month gain, identical to that of May, was strongly influenced by Vancouver, up 16.3%, and Toronto, up 16.2%. In the other four markets surveyed, the 12-month rise ranged from 7.1% in Halifax to 12.0% in Ottawa. In Calgary it was 8.3% and in Montreal 8.7%.

June was the third consecutive month in which prices were up from the month before in all six metropolitan areas surveyed. The monthly rise of the composite index, 1.5%, was the largest since last August. The monthly rise was 2.7% in Ottawa, 2.4% in Toronto, 1.4% in Montreal, 1.3% in Halifax, 0.8% in Vancouver and 0.2% in Calgary. For the composite index it was the 14th straight monthly increase, the longest such run since October 2006."
at 9:17 AM