Friday free-for-all
Here’s your open topic for friday the 13th!
-Is Vancouver the 3rd best place in the world?
-or is Vancouver the 69th best place in Canada?
-Bank of Canada has problems predicting the future.
-US bubble commentary on Bloomberg
What are you seeing out there? Post your links, anectdotes and news here.
Have at it!
*hat tip to swirlyman and cailin for link suggestions
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April 18th, 2007 at 7:33 am
mold:
Wise to be a skeptic.
But if you look at the content of the VHB posts, they’re very much confined to VHBs areas of interest (YOY stats etc).
So I have, as yet, no reason to believe that the VHB at rc’s is anybody other than VHB.
—
April 17th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I think the VHB at chipmans blog is an imposter.. Its someone pretending to be VHB – Before he moved over the wordpress the blogger user info showed that user as being registered just a couple of months ago. Anyone can make an account and call themselves what ever they want.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
VHB does occasionally post on chipman’s blog, so you could catch him there.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am
little house in toronto
http://tinyurl.com/2qq8ht
April 17th, 2007 at 8:23 am
invite him over, but keep in mind he doesn’t like tin foil hats and bull droppings…….
April 17th, 2007 at 8:11 am
I don’t think VHB visits here anymore. Good point though. Does anyone know how to contact him?
April 16th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
VHB,
sorry to ask, but could you re-establish your blog?
I was using it for all the links and it was great.
April 16th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Continuous usage (shelter, cars, appliances), will you be better off financially if you rent to own. Own of course. For obvious reasons. An owner takes on more risk for which he is compensated. In the case of a home, price risk. For a car or appliance, the risk of breakage, or getting out.
The difference of course is that consumer durables never carry a speculative premium (well except PS3, Miata, etc). So you are never in doubt that for the long term it is better to buy – at any time – than to rent.
But for housing the speculative premium can become so outlandish (1981, today) that buying at the wrong time can put you behind renting for decades. And the renter can always jump in at a market bottom, and be ahead of the buy-at-the-top owner for a lifetime.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:13 am
“”Renting is throwing away money” is an economic oxymoron. “
The one that irks me is: “Why pay your landlord’s mortgage”
and
“Have your tenants pay your mortgage for you”
If I recall correctly, both Chipman and Aaron Best threw me that line.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:10 am
“It doesn’t make sense, period. Shelter is a service with a market value, and you’re not throwing away money on renting any more than paying for any other service.”
“Do I lease or buy a car in which I drive to work every day?”
There are two questions here:
1. Is renting throwing money away? As per Patriotz explanation (and mine and other earlier), no you are getting SOMETHING for you money.
2. Continous usuage (shelter, cars, appliances), will you be better off financially if you rent to own. Own of course. For obvious reasons. An owner takes on more risk for which he is compensated. In the case of a home, price risk. For a car or appliance, the risk of breakage, or getting out.
There are also intangibles which are individual. Ownership may create stability and offer “ownership pride” and other intangibles. But it reduces mobility versus renting.
April 16th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Do I lease or buy a car in which I drive to work every day?
Leasing a car is like leasing RE (i.e. 99 year), you’re taking on many of the risks of ownership and it’s definitely not renting. It’s really an alternate form of financing ownership.
If the monthly payments for renting (not leasing) a car were less than the monthly payments for buying the same car, how many people would buy?
Oh right, cars depreciate but RE always goes up.
You can pay for the use of a capital asset by paying the owner directly (renting), or by renting the money from someone else and taking title (owning). In the latter case you’re also renting the asset to yourself. The question is in which case do you pay less – taking into account market rent, carying costs, and the upside/downside on the price of the assets.
The point is that for any asset, there are parameters, both quantifiable and non-quantifiable, that favour buying in some circumstances and renting in other circumstances. That’s as true for RE as for anything else.
“Renting is throwing away money” is an economic oxymoron.