Monday, January 3, 2011

2011's biggest story, concern over falling house prices

With my first blog entry of the new year it seems fitting to take a look back at the year that was.

According to google analytics, in 2010 this blog had over 8,000 page views with over 7,000 being unique. Hardly earth shattering, but probably equivalent to the readership of a small weekly newspaper. Of course I wasn't doing as much writing in 2010 given that this was the year I joined the Canadian Forces, a well ripened 43 year old recruit surviving the rigors of basic training.

I wrote a bit about my decision to join the military, and on my experiences in boot camp. The most read blog post in 2010 on that topic was:

A 43 year old looks to join the army, and go to Afghanistan

That entry was visited a total of 386 times, which ranks as the fourth most read for the year.
The most read posts on this blog, in order, were:

1. Canada's real estate bubble...poised for collapse 973 page views

2. Why put your child in French Immersion? Points to ponder 681 page views

3. Abortion in Canada Legal – Right Up Until Time of Birth 535 page views

And rounding out the top 5, after my musings on middle age and joining the army, came another entry on teaching students French, ou l'enseignment en français si vous préferiez: Should French Be A Mandatory Course? It had 327 page views.

All those posts were from 2009, but a lot of the traffic comes from search engines, almost half at 3,672 visitors.

Looking both ahead and back, I'm not surprised that fear over the inevitable bursting of our bloated real estate bubble topped the list. With reports constantly coming out about how indebted we Canadians are, a significant correction in pricing to many people's most valued commodity is certainly worrisome. All it's going to take of course is an increase in borrowing costs. That will happen as soon as our rock bottom interest rates begin inevitably climbing.

In July of 2009 I posted this:

Canada's real estate bubble...poised for collapse

It included this quote near the end:

"If you wish to question my predictions, that's fine. I'll just ask that you wait until January of 2010, bookmark this post if you wish. In the near term markets can be volatile, no matter how fundamentally flawed a particular commodity may be. Even a lousy hockey team can go on a 5 or 6 game winning streak. But that doesn't mean they're going to make the playoffs. Talk to you in January and beyond..."

The herd is slowly waking up to reality, it always takes time. I'm sure I'll have more to say on this topic as 2011 rolls along.

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