After reading this, you could be forgiven for thinking the headline should have been False “profits” of doom.
Garth Turner’s been wrong about the Calgary housing market for six years. When asked about previous predictions which have not panned out, he either denies that he ever made them, despite hard evidence of the written word(HIS written word), or he shrugs it off and blames his readers for being gullible enough to believe him. His blunders have been well-documented on this blog. My blog stats show the most-read blog post this year has been Garth Turner’s track record speaks for itself.
He can get away with spouting poorly investigated pronouncements because of his entertaining writing style, and the unquestioning audience who believe him to be the housing-crash messiah.
Turner praises Ross Kay who makes unsubstantiated claims about Calgary real estate data. I’ve repeatedly asked Ross Kay for the infamous list of 317 sales which he claims were double-counted. He will not provide his data. He will not give his methodology. He finally got perturbed by my requests and sent me this final email: “This will be the last communication on this topic.”
The onus isn’t on CREB. Kay is the one making accusations, therefore he should provide the 317 “private sales” to start with. How convenient that he won’t, right? He claims on his website that he’s not restricted by CREA or other regulations. He won’t provide the evidence because then he’d be giving his accusers evidence that he’s full of crap.
Ross Kay will sell you the “interpretation” of this “secret” data, but not the data itself
What the heck is Ross Kay’s motivation for being interested in the Calgary real estate market? How does he come up with his data? He has no direct access to the database, so where does he get his information? He boasts that it’s triple-verified. By who? Kay has not come through with any evidence to back his claims, but wait, could this be his reason, as he states on his website: “The only accurate interpretation of this data can come from RossKay.com.” Translation: he’ll sell you the “interpretation” of the real data, but you will never actually see the hard numbers or the methodology. Anyone can make up numbers, but I would have to give him full marks for entrepreneurship and actually attempting to sell them.
Ross Kay is unburdened by data, evidence, or transparency
Ross Kay criticizes the credibility of CREB, yet he will not disclose his data. Ross Kay claims on his website that he is an advocate of open and full disclosure. How does he justify that dissonance?
Turner has a history of creating frankenumbers and questionable data, so it should be no surprise that he’s in bed with Ross Kay.
Ross Kay states on his website: RossKay.com is independent of any and all fiduciary duties related to MLS® data allowing for full independence, open and full disclosure and finally data review that is statistically valid.
Ross Kay, let’s have the open and full disclosure.
Bob's real estate blog 
Ross Kay was on CBC Calgary News on 16 Oct 2013 talking about the housing market and the misleading data provided by CREB. He stated “the data is not accurate”…”the data for the month of August from CREB contains a 10% variance compared to “his” data”. But he refused to provide his original data. He may very well be correct, but it sounds very suspicious when he refuses to provide the source of his information.
Turner and Kay haven’t got a freakin’ clue. Their accusations are based on poor reading comprehension and not understanding the methodologies used. http://calgaryrealestatereview.com/2013/10/17/fact-check-did-crea-secretly-adjust-septembers-sales-figures/
Disgruntled former realtor Ross (Hey, now I’m a auditor) Kay, and Barf (I never said crash) Turder got their asses handed to them big-time yesterday. It’s painfully obvious that neither one of them understands the term “seasonally adjusted.” It’s what happens when people who struggle with numbers try to get their head around basic statistical concepts. Hilarious!
Garth Turner has been calling for a massive correction for about 7 years, and it has failed to materialize. We have finally reached the tipping point, but those who listed to Garth and didn’t buy property 5-6 years ago–especially in Vancouver or Toronto could have made a lot of money. When I called him out on this in his comments section he merely deletes my comment. He went from calling for a crash to a “correction.” How much has real estate in Vancouver increased in 10 years? Surely more than 100%, so what effect will a correction have on something that has more than doubled in value? Very little. Just glad he’s not my financial advisor!