Has the real estate market reached a fever pitch in Canada?

In yet another sign that real estate is sexy, check out Google Zeitgeist's listing of the most popular search terms in Canada for the month of March 2006. Amid the usual suspects of television shows, celebrities and other pop culture staples lies a relatively innocuous entry, one that you might overlook if you didn't know what it was - www.mls.ca.

This entry is sandwiched between "American Idol", and "Pamela Anderson" (at least she's Canadian!). It is a website maintained by realtors across Canada for real estate listings on the "multiple listing service" (from which mls is derived).

It seems that everyone in Canada is checking out what their house is worth these days, by checking out other listings in their neighbourhood.

Does this mean that a collapse is imminent? Probably not. In fact, it is a very handy website if you are looking at buying a house since you can do it from the comfort of your computer without having to endure the company of a real estate agent until absolutely necessary, when you've finally taken the plunge and are actually looking at properties.

But with house prices continuing to escalate rapidly across the country, and interest rates on the rise, this could be a good time to sit on the sidelines for a little while to see if the market cools down a bit before taking the plunge.mortgage calculator