Tomorrow is Canada Day, but the spirit of Thanksgiving always seems to come to me on our nation’s birthday as I think about how much Canadians have to be grateful for. With my housing hat on, I think the thing we should be most pleased with is our very high rate of homeownership and our healthy housing market, particularly compared with the U.S.

In the U.S., home prices have declined precipitously, home foreclosures number in the millions, and an estimated 25 per cent of homeowners carry mortgages that are higher than the value of their homes — referred to as being “underwater.”

With housing inventory levels at record highs, U.S. housing construction is a fraction of what it was at the peak. It will be a long, long time before U.S. housing markets recover the lost ground of the last five years, and even longer before they begin to grow again.

Here in Canada, our home prices suffered a slight setback during the crisis but have more than recovered any lost ground. Housing construction has roared back as well, which is great from the standpoint of jobs, investment and tax revenues flowing to all levels of government.  

Here in the GTA, total new home sales are running 12 per cent ahead of last year, driven by a 29 per cent year/year increase in condo sales. That’s thanks to the enlightened fiscal policy of the Bank of Canada, which has resulted in today’s exceedingly low interest rates, combined with the efforts of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to strike a perfect balance with respect to housing finance rules.

Merging Thanksgiving with Canada Day would be easy – just barbecue the turkey. Happy Canada Day!

Stephen Dupuis is President and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and can be found on Twitter (twitter.com/bildgta), Facebook (facebook.com/bildgta), YouTube (youtube.com/bildgta) and BILD’s official online blog (bildblogs.ca).