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Eric Beauchesne wrote in the Citizen on Nov 10:
   "Falling rates buoy housing picture"

Does Eric not know that today's mortgage rates are higher than those
of 2-3 years ago?

    "Demand for new houses remains strong despite weakened economy: CMHC"

Does CMHC not realize that this is a fallacy in many places including
Ottawa?

In it's report Building permits September 2000  StatCan says: 

    "The value of housing permits rose a marginal 0.2% to $1.8 billion; 
    only multi-family dwellings contributed to the gain...

    Among the provinces, Western Canada accounted for September's rise 
    in housing permits; all  provinces east of Saskatchewan 
    posted declines."

Does not sound like demand of housing is that great even outside Ottawa.

Back to Eric: �
    "Despite the skepticism of opposition critics and some economists, 
    plunging interest rates are working their magic on a key sector 
    of the economy, housing, easing pressure on Finance
    Minister Paul Martin to do more to stimulate an economy many 
    analysts argue is already in recession."

    Home construction rose a surprising 12.7 per cent last month"

It did? In which part of the country?

    "Urban starts rose in all regions," Canada Mortgage and 
    Housing Corp. economist Philippe Le Goff"

Check the facts.

    "Ted Carmichael, economist at J.P. Morgan Canada, agreed, 
    saying "falling mortgage rates..." 

Maybe if you repeat this fallacy enough times it will become 
true?

    "The pace of construction remained ahead of last year's 
    in all major cities other than Montreal, where starts were 
    down one per cent."

According to the Ottawa Business News:

    "There was a decline in Ottawa housing starts last month, 
    when compared to October 2000"  

Back to Eric:

    "For a homebuyer the savings from the drop in rates this year..." 

That's a little better, but it would be nice if the Citizen 
explained that mortgage rates are still higher than they were a 
couple of years ago.

    "...as the government leaves it to the Bank of Canada to 
    stimulate the economy."

The Bank of Canada does not set mortgage rates. Doesn't Eric 
know that?

    "Central banks' ... both the European and England's 
    central banks... U.S. Federal Reserve... Bank of Canada..."

What have any of these to do with mortgage rates?????

Kristin Goff continues with"                               
    "House sales surprise Ottawa industry"
 �
    "Mortgage rates, which have fallen to 6.9 per cent on five-year 
    terms at major banks"

You mean the 5-yr mortgage rate that "fell" from the 6.71% average 
rate recorded by the Bank of Canada for April of 1999? 

    "Resales... In October the average was $172,900 last month which 
    was still up about 10 per cent from October, 2000."

Don't know about that, but how about telling your readers that the 
average resale home in Ottawa fetched $175,594 for the first nine 
months of 2001. Sounds like prices are declining from where I stand.

    "Mr. Knowlton said overall new home sales prices haven't 
    declined noticeably."

Oh? So they did decline? By how much?

The Citizen not covered the September New House Price index published
by StatCan on Nov 10. This report shows that new house prices moved
up a slugish 0.1% in Toronto and 0% in Ottawa.

Now is that a surprise for the "booming" housing industry? 
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