Friday Free-for-all
Early Edition! Its Friday and that means its time for our weekend super-post round up. Here’s a few stories I’ve noticed this week:
-CBC Video: Abbotsford condo tower Brio put on hold
-BC Real Estate Association says rate cut good for buyers
-Cut in bank rates has no effect on fixed rate mortgages
-Average house price approaching $1 Million
-Use the right words to get it sold
-One months rent: $100,000 please.
-Shelter costs in Vancouver eat up income
-Gordon Campbell: Smaller lots cut housing costs
-Vancouver can’t afford affordable housing
-Enjoy the good times while they’re here
-US mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures hit new high
-Not licensed to print money
What are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and anecdotes here!
March 10th, 2008 at 5:14 am
121 comments?? Nice
I wasn't able (and willing) to read them all, but seems you have pretty tough discussion about real estate and media. I think there's no need for such a fuss. If you want to be a good realtor and survive for 15 years (like we in Toronto Royal LePage, ha!) you sure have to be able to choose the right articles (and there is not much of them) and the rest throw to dustbin (or delete). And if not – you are just another looser, that's how it goes in every business…
March 9th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
No, BoP, you are not a troll. We have a difference of opinion in one specific area that is all.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
"A highly scientific survey of 50 people at the Gallery Café on Hornby Street in Vancouver"
HA HA HA HA
March 9th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Carioca if you look at the Vancouver Sun its the same story – multiple glossy color sections that are basically shameless ads for various real estate developments masquerading as 'news'. Most of the 'articles' are written by people with something to sell – there was the 'don't listen to the gloomers' article by local real estate investment seminar guru Ozzie Jurock, and this article I linked to in the forum that was advertising the BC real estate convention (I still can't completely parse the bad writing in that one).
March 9th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
"BTW, BoP, are you “rentah” by any chance? In that case my apologies for lack of diplomacy earlier."
I'm not "renah". I've never posted under another name. Out of curiosity, am I the "troll" or are you referring to Randallbard?
March 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Burden of Proof…..
I think you are correct about national papers….the G+M as well as the National Post have been more "realistic" in their reporting of this countries RE situation, as well as that of the US.
The Calgary Herald OTOH is a farce.
We have the "New Homes" section….."New Condos" section……"Investment and Vacation Properties" section and the "Home and Style" section…..each of which is made up of full page ads hawking RE and/or ads written up to look like editorials or news.
I own a business and advertise "minimally" in the Herald….FWIW a full page is $10K at a minimum…….43 pages of full color is easily $500K. And they do these sections each and every week. Think about it. You cannot expect them to be truthful and impartial or they'd be out of business as next to no one advertises in them anymore since the internet came about. In the WSJ I read that the valuations of most major newspapers are off 50% in the last 2 years……
March 9th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Markets rattled by signs of renewed credit crisis
http://tinyurl.com/yszkc8
“Some markets are getting worse than January this time. There is fear that something dramatic will happen and that fear is feeding itself.
as posted on cocos site…..
Monday is going to be very interesting!
March 9th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
from one of the 'gurus' who called the US housing crash:
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/326566
March 9th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Ignore the troll.
Ignore the troll
Ignore the troll
Easier said than done.
BTW, BoP, are you "rentah" by any chance? In that case my apologies for lack of diplomacy earlier.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Through my work I deal with many of the local developers in this city. A couple, more candid developers, have confirmed exactly what is being discussed here. The local newspapers rely on the money they receive through through RE. Just think about the amount of ad space devoted to RE. Flipping through today's Province, look at every page of ads of condo's for sale.
That's why the Bob Rennie's of the world are allowed pages of space to print their own BS and have it appear as journalism. Why don't they give the same luxury to just any bloke, especially one with an opinion that differs from those blowhards? It's all about money. The local papers know who their daddy is.
Any non-independent media has to be taken with a handful of salt. Read between the lines and always ask who has something to gain from what is being reported.
March 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am
The media can't stray from reality entirely, that would be rediculous.
When they quote predictions of a lousy 4% gain from the most outrageous bulls in the industry, you can rest assured that the market is in serious trouble, and it's time to fasten our seat belts.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Carioca Canuck,
Interesting comment about the Herald. I wonder if there is a difference in the bias displayed by local papers in the bubbliest markets like Calagary and Vancouver and the national papers, which due to their national scope attract less locally focused RE advertising. Granted the TO Star is local but printed that bearish article posted by paulb.
I'm intersted to know if anyone else out there shares my preception of a bias shift in the media.
I don't know if this blog has voting features but it may be an interesting poll for the host to conduct.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I am new to this blog but have been a lurker for some time. I frequent the Alberta Bubble blog regularily as well as a few others concerning RE bubble that exists in Canada.
As to Burden of Proofs comment about the media being bearish…..all I can say is this…….yesterday's Calgary Herald had 151 pages and 43 weresolely ads and editorial features disguised as ads, devoted to propping up the "Real Estate Industrial Complex"…….
The media has more to lose than we do, therefore they continually lie……subtract $10K a page from that Herald edition and you'll see why.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
A comment about the mainstream meadia with a view to perhaps learning some lessons. The canadian print and radio media seem to me to be displaying, on balance, a bearish bias on RE since January. This is a stark contrast to their bullish bias over the last 8 years.
To ask a very controversial question: Could it be that the media is more astute in calling the top than we bears? Obviously the RE market was going to fall eventually. That proposition is trite. The only question worth asking is "when?". On that crucial question, I and every other bear has been wrong for a number of years. The media has been right. Now, many in the media seem to be calling a top (at least that is my perception). It is a call that is much better than the call I and other bears have made in the past.
Of course, you could say that the media creates sentiment. It is the old question: Does art immitate life or does life immitate art?. It is probably a reflexive relationship.
However, for this RE cycle, we may be able to draw the conclusion that the media had its finger on the RE pulse better than the bears and taking the "advice" of the balance of media bias on RE, at least this time around, would have been profitable.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Thanks paulb.
Looks like leaks are popping up whereever you look, first Edmonton, then Calcary, Victoria, and now Toronto.
If that realtor from T was in Vancouver, he'd be hunkered down in bowels of some bomb shelter.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:55 am
the economist spelled it out 3 maybe 4 years ago. I remember a cover story from 2005 talking about overheated housing markets around the world…it was all so clear…then.
btw, a friend of mine said they just laid off three people in his office because of lack of work from the US. And this a graphics design firm…the vaunted and untouchable service economy…
March 9th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Trouble in Toronto http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/326567
March 9th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Remember everyone, ignore the troll…
March 9th, 2008 at 12:25 am
I meant Canadian Dollar..sorry
March 9th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Gold in USD versus CAD chart. Freako can't read charts obviously
Instructions…
Scroll to near the bottom of the page to
EXCHANGE RATES in the center table
Click on "Canadian Dollar"
Then Click on the 5 YEARS button and you have your answer that gold has outperformed the USD by about 28%
You can compare to other currencies as well
March 9th, 2008 at 12:06 am
freako…
"Banks lend from “thin air” based on their fractional reserve ratio. If they don’t want to lend, there is no money to invest into gold. It is simply not created"
LOLOL…you just said it. That's the exact reason for buying gold….it cannot be created with a pen. It is the ultimate financial security. ALL currencies in mankind's history have gone to zero eventually and the USD is on its way there now. So in terms of USD gold has unlimited upside…infinity.
Only so much gold is produced each year. Only so much silver but silver is used up in some industrial uses as well whereas gold isn't, making silver the ultimate undervalued financial hedge right now.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Jesse…
"As to gold, out of curiosity, how do you know when to buy or sell?"
You do NOT try to pick one entry and exit point (if you think you ever really want to exit REAL money)but rather every Wednesday afternoon at the same time you buy a set dollar amount of gold or silver no matter what the price is. Ex. you buy $1,000.00 worth OR you buy one ounce of gold or 50 ounces of silver every Wed no matter if it is up or down. This way you average your costs over a longer period of time rather than trying to guess the top or bottom which no one ever knows. You would sell the same way.
Anyway prepare for increased wild volatility going forward and don't get shaken out…buy it and ignore it.