Canadian home builder sentiment falls to survey low

<p>Canada's housing market is a mess.</p><p>A huge surge in immigration combined with a jump in mortgage rates created both a supply and affordability crisis. Unfortunately, home builders aren't going to come to the rescue.</p><p>The latest quarterly <a href="https://www.chba.ca/hmi" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">survey </a>from the Canadian
Home Builders’ Association showed builder sentiment falling to 24.6 from 33.6 for single family homes. That's the lowest in the three-year history of the survey.</p><p>Last year, 64% of builders built fewer homes and 30% cancelled projects. For the year ahead, 41% of builders expected to have the same number of starts and 36% say fewer.</p><p>The country now finds itself in a trap as Canadians can't afford to buy houses in Canada and increasingly can't afford to rent either. Meanwhile, home builders aren't building.</p><p>I will be watching the spring housing market (which really gets going about mid-Feb) very closely as falling home prices (or not) are a major risk for the Canadian dollar this year.</p>

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.