Half in Alberta would hold off on buying new home, poll finds

水管工

The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:31 am
EDMONTON - Nearly half of Albertans believe this is a bad time to buy a house, says a monthly consumer and business confidence survey released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Leger Marketing.

Only 26 per cent of the poll sample of 727 Albertans rated the time as right for a home purchase, while 49 per cent said conditions are currently wrong for making new real estate commitments.
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1 ]) `4 E8 y! O7 v9 R' aDoubts about the future of house prices and Alberta's overall economic outlook fuel the wary attitude, said Kurian Tharakan, an Edmonton PricewaterhouseCoopers partner.

Caution could also be encouraged by gloomy word from the United States about the collapse of its "sub-prime" or high-risk mortgage market, rising home foreclosures and dropping real estate prices, Tharakan added.
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6 k! c( Q' E9 U/ IIn Alberta, low mortgage interest rates and ample homes for sale make 2008 better than booming 2006 or early '07 for newcomers to the province who need to buy a place to live, he suggested.
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But people who have the option of staying in their current homes are wondering if they would risk paying too much by buying a new one instead of waiting to see if real estate prices drop, he added.
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Expectations that Alberta growth will cool down are spreading, the survey said.

. A" F8 v1 v, I: WSuspicions are developing that rising unemployment and household income setbacks might lie ahead.

6 l# O9 \' C* B"For the first time since tracking this data (began) in January of 2007, Albertans now have a slightly pessimistic feeling towards the future unemployment rate," the survey says.
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Confidence also showed signs of slipping among 390 business leaders in the poll.
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2 c0 S& m1 g- \! XThere is "slow erosion" of optimism that "perhaps can be attributed to the slowdown in the natural gas side of the petroleum industry, where layoffs and idle equipment have been witnessed over the past six to eight months," the survey said.

娇娇

ding! It's the same concern as I have now. Most people are still waiting to see.

pacibridge

It must be a wrong decision if majority belive so.