Key Economic Indicators - my sources

[JimWhitelaw]

At last night`s REIN meeting in Edmonton, Don once again reminded us that the key economic data underlying the real estate market is more important than the actual real estate statistics themselves. I had to leave the meeting early, but when I got home I wrote this blog article that outlines the primary sources of important economic data that I use to help guide our real estate investment business. This is meant as a resource guide to help the reader understand how we make our decisions and what information sources we rely on. It is not an analysis of the current economic data.

http://www.ahshomes.ca/articles/economic-indicators

I hope that this proves to be a useful resource for you and I welcome your feedback on it.

 

[brentdavies]

Came across another leading indicator from a totally off the wall source.

Vending machine collections for apartment laundry, cigeratte machines, pop, etc. This is not a publicly reported number.

Alberta towns on the upward swing, Edmonton, St Albert, Sherwood Park, Ft McMurray.
Towns sideways slide, Ft Sask., Camrose, Red Deer.
Towns still sliding down, North West Alberta, Peace River and Grande Prairie.

This NOT public information, and should not be taken as the Gospel Truth of the Economy. Just another sign.

Cheers

 

[bizaro86]

QUOTE (brentdavies @ Oct 14 2010, 12:01 PM) Came across another leading indicator from a totally off the wall source.

Vending machine collections for apartment laundry, cigeratte machines, pop, etc. This is not a publicly reported number.

Isn`t this more likely to be a trailing indicator of vacancy? I would imagine most people`s laundry use doesn`t change that much with the economy, so total laundry use in an apartment complex is probably mainly a function of occupancy of the building? And cigarettes, being highly addictive, are one of the last things people cut out of their budgets. For evidence of this, I submit the homeless people on the street smoking in downtown Calgary.

I agree this is a great data source (non-traditional, non-public data is WONDERFUL!) but I suspect its more reflective of occupancy.

Of course, its probably also more accurate than the CMHC`s data. They don`t have much of an incentive to be right, but whoever you`re getting this number from probably keeps pretty close tabs on how much money they`re making.

Michael