Lately there has been a lot chatter about how indebted Canadians are and how this 'crushing' debt load is going to create another "made in Canada recession" as reported in the Globe and Mail last week. Supposedly, the average household debt has now surpassed the $100k mark for the first time in history and for those households which carry mortgages, the debt level has reached $171,500. And the situation here in BC, according to TD Bank, is the worst in the country; BC residents are most vulnerable in Canada to external economic shocks such as falling house prices, job losses, or surging interest rates. Not much of a surprise there, considering sky high housing costs and debt levels required to support expensive assets. But here on the Left Coast, we have a strange phenomenon: real estate prices that refuse to moderate, driven in large part by influx of wealthy and now increasingly middle class mainland Chinese immigrants. As a result, our assets values and by association networth figures keep increasing, but purchasing homes for locals will require even higher levels of personal debt. Where will things balance out? Who knows. I don't think traditional economists with their age old econometrics models really are in a better position to forecast than the average person. I chuckle whenever I see economists panels on TV news programs trying to predict yet again an imminent correction in Vancouver housing prices because "our incomes can't keep up" with the price increases. Haven't they been doing that for the last three decades? LOL.