Canada real estate in peak form Low mortgage rates, income growth and immigration are fuelling the market across the country.

(From South China Morning Post)

Byline: Markus Gaertner in Vancouver

More than four years ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics, 24-year-old Mike, a native of Ottawa, has found his dream home in the village of Whistler. The young squatter, who did not reveal his full name, proudly showed off his one-room wooden shack built in a tree above the elite mountain community 120km north of Vancouver.

Mike is a snowboarder who crashed into a tree last winter. He could not walk for three months, lost his job and was no longer able to pay the outrageous rent for his trendy Whistler apartment.

So, following the example of other hard-core campers, he moved …