Some Thoughts for Sunday

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful week of discussion. You guys have been providing some valuable insights and interesting links related to Alberta real estate and related things.

A few thoughts:

-The possibility of rent control in Alberta. The industry claims that there's shortage of affordable housing here because....it's too expensive to build stuff here. No surprises here. I wonder how do they actually manage to provide housing in rest of Canada where they don't allow more than 2 to 4% rent increase per year. This in itself is a complex topic and those with a deeper background on the subject are welcome to comment.

-Looks like that the possibility of a slow down is being recognized in our neighbouring province. While theoretically there still could be some 'equity locusts' moving from the rainiest parts of Canada to the coldest parts of Canada, with the recent increase in Alberta prices, their motivation to do must have reduced a bit. If there is indeed a slow down in BC, would it have any impact on Alberta? Of course, there are no oil sands in BC and we are different.

-Anecdotal observations- Just looking around in Edmonton and Calgary, everyone seems to have a new car. When I first came to Alberta, I was actually shocked by the number of 'beat ups' all around me. And now, it's almost like NYC here.
Although I have no numbers to prove this, but it looks like good old house ATM is funding the automotive dreams of Albertans. Nothing wrong with it, so long as they recognize that they'll still have to pay it back. After all, not everyone is getting rich in this province based on the resource wealth. At least directly. The housing boom is perhaps the 'democratic' way of spreading wealth amongst Albertans!