Friday Free for All!

It’s Friday and you know what that means… It’s open topic time! Here’s a few stories I’ve noticed this week:

-Top 15 real estate myths
-Bequeathing mortgage debt to your kids
-Want a house bargain? Try Kitimat
-Century Point New West in receivership?
-Sometimes hard work is not enough
-New condos for open air drug & sex market
-The Abbotsford earthquake zone
-Offer $2 for the one dollar Toronto house
-New US home sales slowest since 1991
-Global financial crisis is getting worse

What are you all seeing out there these days? Post your news, links, ideas, and anecdotes here and have a great weekend!

note: any conversation on real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. when posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Thanks!

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165 Responses to “Friday Free for All!”

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  1. 165
  2. “Anyone have relatives in Alberta that want a downtown condo?” « Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive Says: Reply to this comment

    [...] the links at RE Talks, condohype, vancouvercondoinfo & the Sun itself for this [...]

    Current score: 0
  3. 164
  4. disbelief Says: Reply to this comment

    arrrrr

    Current score: 0
  5. 163
  6. beatstreet Says: Reply to this comment

    It seems average sale price continues to fall along with list. Rob Chipman just posted the latest numbers.

    Granted, average sales depends on the sales mix, and the benchmark data will hopefully be out later this week for April to get a better read on things. I used his Feb 23 numbers to see the change over two months:

    EndDate Feb-23 Apr-26

    ListPri 577,303 534,726 -7.4%

    AvSales 567,296 525,618 -7.3%

    Current score: 0
  7. 162
  8. homerstreet Says: Reply to this comment

    "That’s a multiple of 80 times rent" — not really!?

    4 * $900 * 12 = $43,200 rent per year

    $290,000 / $43,200 = 6.71 Gross Rent Multiplier

    That is a good deal, one I have never seen before. Downtown Vancouvers GRM is round about 19.

    Current score: 0
  9. 161
  10. patriotz Says: Reply to this comment

    ..if the building has four units renting for $900 a month each, expenses that eat up 50% of your gross income, and a cap rate of 7.5%, you can quickly calculate that you should pay about $290,000 for the building, tops

    That's a multiple of 80 times rent, and the bulls think you're nuts to suggest it might go down to 100. Also a four-plex has better fundamentals than a condo (no management ripoff, more land value) so the condo would need to have a lower multiple for the same total return.

    Current score: 0
  11. 160
  12. On media, myths and realities « condohype Says: Reply to this comment

    [...] in the market. Already, the local blogosphere is buzzing with reaction. Over at the lively Vancouver Condo blog, some commenters were so furious they demanded the article be attributed as a paid [...]

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  13. 159
  14. blueskies Says: Reply to this comment

    can't happen here!

    http://tinyurl.com/3qumq5

    unh unh! nah! no way! never!

    Current score: 0
  15. 158
  16. digi Says: Reply to this comment

    This months issue of 'moneysense' magazine is all about real estate as well. There are some interesting articles in there – the one about how to get rich on real estate goes over cap rates and touches on the issue of rental income and maintenance costs. For anyone in Vancouver the numbers on what it takes to make an investment worthwhile is mindblowing:

    ..if the building has four units renting for $900 a month each, expenses that eat up 50% of your gross income, and a cap rate of 7.5%, you can quickly calculate that you should pay about $290,000 for the building, tops. If you pay more, it's probably not a good long-term investment.

    We know what you're thinking: "Where on earth am I going to find a four-plex that's going for less than $300,000?" Certainly not in Vancouver, where the average detached house is now selling for north of half a million. Probably not in Toronto, Calgary or Edmonton either.

    But that doesn't mean the calculations are wrong, What it means is that now may not be a great time to buy. Your annual return is essentially the spread between market rent and the cost of buying and owning a property. In many cities, property prices have been climbing by as much as 10% a year. Rents have been edging up far less. Thus, the rising prices have squeezed the profit potential right out of buildings.

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  17. 157
  18. Patiently Waiting Says: Reply to this comment

    Yeah, I really meant potential buyers. You're right, there are no deals right now or for the next couple years.

    Anyone here have any good information on the Mosiac townhouse developers? They are building a new project in Coquitlam apparently on spec. I drove by it and the completed pretty on the surface, but the half-built ones seemed like the typical crappy materials.

    Current score: 0
  19. 156
  20. patriotz Says: Reply to this comment

    They must think buyers are idiots. Well OK, some are.

    No, all are. The smart money isn't buying.

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  21. 155
  22. Patiently Waiting Says: Reply to this comment

    I'm getting sick of people pricing higher than comps and declaring "seller motivated" or "priced to sell". They must think buyers are idiots. Well OK, some are.

    Current score: 0
  23. 154
  24. -A- Says: Reply to this comment

    "Comment by Drachen

    “They come in three waves,” Balfour told the Georgia Straight in an interview at his home.

    I didn’t say that. Please don’t attribute things to me that I didn’t say, I get in enough trouble for the things I DO say"

    Sorry Drachen, For the record, it was not Drachen.

    It should have read:

    Comment by Patiently Waiting

    2008-04-27 10:46:26

    Current score: 0
  25. 153
  26. Drachen Says: Reply to this comment

    Comment by Drachen

    “They come in three waves,” Balfour told the Georgia Straight in an interview at his home.

    I didn't say that. Please don't attribute things to me that I didn't say, I get in enough trouble for the things I DO say.

    Current score: 0
  27. 152
  28. Patiently Waiting Says: Reply to this comment

    Yeah, I suspected a hidden agenda.

    Later in the article, Balfour says,

    "Canada will undoubtedly be asked to take on millions of people as a result of climate change"

    Who will "ask" us? Oh, wait a second, I think he might be saying the Americans will head North. Arnie leading a caravan of SUVs from California. Yikes!!!

    Current score: 0
  29. 151
  30. -A- Says: Reply to this comment

    .

    .

    .

    Comment by Drachen

    “They come in three waves,” Balfour told the Georgia Straight in an interview at his home.

    Please tell me this is not the same Balfour as:

    http://www.balfourproperties.com/

    Current score: 0

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