Friday free for all
It open-topic time, here are a few news stories to kick off the discussion:
- Rennies ‘simple solution‘ for affordability
- Greatest gangland on earth
- Home market flooded by sellers
- Woodwards redevelopment stumbles on
- Another blow for BC forestry industry
- Boom over, no bust predicted
- Home sales falling fast
- Canada, sucker nation
- RBC writedown only $855 Million
- Canadians invade Florida
- 9 foreclosures + bankruptcy = mistake
- Bernankes bubble laboratory
What are you seeing out there? Post your news, links, thoughts 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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May 20th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Thanks Pope for the link to Paul’s site. His is great but is that the rawest form it comes in?
May 20th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Why is it that over 90% of the bulls on these forums can’t string a coherent sentence together, and are so illiterate that it’s hard to tell WTF they are talking about?
While not all bulls are stupid, all stupid people are invariably bulls.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:29 am
krissh/anon comments about childcare shows how ignorant he really is, westside daycares can have multi year waiting lists and it’s not free.
Whatever he says do the opposite or you could end up like him!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Anon – a great source of up to date data from the REBGV (sales, listings, prices) is Paul Boenische:
http://www.nvcondos.ca/aPage.jsp?aPageId=2
May 20th, 2008 at 7:55 am
does anyone know where we can get our hands on the raw data such as inventories and sales figures? I want to do a comparison on sales vs rent, inventory vs sales and a few other ones but I am not able to find anything raw..
May 19th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Sell now, or be priced in forever.
Beautiful! You win the quote-of-the-week contest!
May 19th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
to:anonymous
re: childcare in Canada
just for the record – Canada has one of the worst records re:providing childcare – in the industrialized world
and other countries have found that when they provide free childcare, their overall social expenditures diminish exponentially, because single parents are able to work.
o.k. – back to real estate
May 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
“Why is it that over 90% of the bulls on these forums can’t string a coherent sentence together, and are so illiterate that it’s hard to tell WTF they are talking about?”
because 99% of the bulls on this blog are really just the split personalities of satv. All of them prefer to intentionally mangle their english just to twig the bears.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
“You seems to be agree with other benefits two points you have single out about rich and free child care.”
allright. free healthcare? is it really free? my employer pays my msp fees. does that make it free? If it were free, how does big pharma and the health system make money? It looks free, but it’s not, is it?
“Child benefits,child care for low income earners” – what? low income earners? How could the rich immigrants be low income earners if they make gazillions flipping real estate? Or do you mean they arrive rich and then turn poor after getting here? That sounds like a great way to attract immigrants, don’t you think? “Arrive rich, become poor”.
“return of the amount paid for as child care are all part of child care programme” – again, it shows you have no kids. what on earth are you saying? Every dollar I pay towards child care is coming back to me? Ha ha ha ha. Are we talking about the same vancouver best place on earth here?
“free education till grade 12″ – yeah? Well, a few years from now, you think a grade 12 education will get you a good job? Sure, you may be doing well now, but the next generations, well, they may find it tougher.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Wrongheaded editorial in the NYT:
But in many cities today, house-price declines are so severe that potential buyers are staying on the sidelines, fearful of further collapse. The result is declines that are deeper than need be to restore affordability.
Wrong. You haven’t restored affordability until buying is cheaper than renting, and the US markets are still not close to that. That’s what’s needed to get people buying again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05.....9mon1.html
May 19th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I am desperately trying to find a place to buy, but there are no listings anywhere.
I have tried to make contact with some of the realtors on Rob’s site, but every time I post, I get a “your comment is waiting moderation” comment.
Is anybody else in the same situation?
May 19th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
“THERE IS NO DOWNTURN PLEASE”
Is a message from the bus driver not from any clowns.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
CMHC says prices of existing houses will rise this year by 9.3 per cent in B.C., 3.6 per cent in Alberta…
This is the famous “predicting the past” methodology pioneered by the NAR et al south of the border:
1. If the market increased last year by over 10%, cut the number down a bit for next year so you don’t look overoptimistic (BC, Sask, etc.).
2. If the market increased by less than 10%, just predict about the same (Eastern Canada).
2. If the market fell last year, predict a small increase next year, i.e. call the bottom (Alberta).
May 19th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
“THERE IS NO DOWNTURN PLEASE”
I love the desperation coming from these clowns. Anyone wonder if Rennie is fully vested in the Vancouver RE market? I mean what happens to his income when there are no new condos to be built for the next 10 years? I’ll bet that clown is lying awake nights with a barf bucket beside his bed. After all if the “Donald” couldn’t stay whole through the last turn with his Daddy’s money how will East Side Bob make it?
May 19th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Today open house I had to sell condo before market go down for decade to come many buyer want to save hundred thousands of dollars forget and no come to buy they not glorious studio market multicultural and go up in decades buy my condo it goes up for decades to come childcare is free and income triple
May 19th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Why is it that over 90% of the bulls on these forums can’t string a coherent sentence together, and are so illiterate that it’s hard to tell WTF they are talking about?
May 19th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I must admit that i was surprised, but i wonder what this says about our world class status? Some food for thought, given many poo poo Vancouver’s status.
Ulsterman, it just mean we have weather. Rain, lots of it, overcast skies, lots of them. They’ve heard that people are starting to think that Vancouver is a good place to go, and as a public service they are warning people by telling them about the weather.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
“free childcare? in vancouver? clearly you do not have kids. or you are a kid”.
You seems to be agree with other benefits two points you have single out about rich and free child care.
“why would the rich immigrants care about welfare? they can just buy and sell leaky condos to make a living”.
This type of environment is good for investor from all category because the city is definitley carry built in immune system from the jerks of nature or human control nature.People can extend their efforts to touch the heights because every body knows there is some one to privide the essential needs of life for them and their families.
“”free childcare? in vancouver? clearly you do not have kids. or you are a kid”.
Child benefits,child care for low income earners,return of the amount paid for as child care are all part of child care programme,it is also available to single parents without any charge,I believe there is no other country provide this other than Canada and UK.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
From the “Boom over, no bust predicted” link. So, is this what the end of a real estate boom looks like?
CMHC says prices of existing houses will rise this year by 9.3 per cent in B.C., 3.6 per cent in Alberta, 26.1 per cent in Saskatchewan, 13.5 per cent in Manitoba, 3.5 per cent in Ontario, 4.7 per cent in Quebec, four per cent in New Brunswick, five per cent in Nova Scotia, three per cent in Prince Edward Island and 10.5 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
“I don’t think country other than Canada and United Kingdom provide health care,welfare,and childCare plus free education till grade 12.”
why would the rich immigrants care about welfare? they can just buy and sell leaky condos to make a living.
free childcare? in vancouver? clearly you do not have kids. or you are a kid.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Read on,
I don’t think country other than Canada and United Kingdom provide health care,welfare,and childCare plus free education till grade 12.
For your point towards bali I don’t think any bear can go buy there in fear of another blast on threat.
Yeah people can move to any country through their networks that’s mean population in most livable cities and world class cities countinue to increase but those cities have nothing to cut from vancouver. so even if we follow your recomendation still there is no risk of downturn in Vancouver,Vancouver will pick it’s share year over year.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
It is absolutely true. All the rich jet set are moving here, specifically in the Dundas and Victoria Drive area, and they are all interested in buying 600sft leaky condos.
And it is also true they prefer a 4o year mortgage to encourage some of their wives to take jobs at Tim Horton’s
May 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Jun, your argument makes sense if stretched out to an extremely long timeline. I can guarantee that bread will be more expensive in 100 years, but I’m not rushing out to the bakery to stock up and get rich.
You don’t even have to be that old or experienced to have lived through an economic downturn in Vancouver – housing is a market which like all other markets rises and falls. You can’t time the top or bottom of the market, but you can compare housing cost to rental value. Rents are what people are willing and able to pay for housing, its ‘actual value’ without the distortion of investment manias.
One of your key arguments seems to be that there are wealthy people in the world, and this will keep our market from crashing, but why would a multi-millionaire want to buy any off the thousands of 600 sq foot condos downtown? There will always be a difference between the high-end housing market and the ‘normal’ market.
Rich people don’t need mortgages, so what do you think would happen here if we did away with lending?
May 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Anonymous Says: +0
May 19th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
“why would all those newly weathly folk want to move here then?”
For quality of life.
So why aren’t we all moving to Bali then? If the eastern economies are going to move all the wealth there instead of here (as Jun suggests), then health care, job prospects, etc will no doubt be better there, no?
May 19th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
“why would all those newly weathly folk want to move here then?”
For quality of life.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
So very well keep your paper money then. I am not suggesting to buy real estate, but buy other thing such as gold, sugar, oil and etc…
May 19th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
err, jun
if you actually READ the soros article, you’ll see that he is talking about exactly that – drop offs in commodities demand from other countries and a collapse in the commodities market globally. disagree with him if you wish, but at least read the article before spouting more crap.
oh and if the wealth is shifting to the other side of the world – which it may well be – why would all those newly weathly folk want to move here then?