Collateral Foreclosure Damage for Condo Owners – NYT

Everybody should read this article regarding the damage that depreciating condo values does to the strata's financial health. Really eye opening…

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/business/14leon…

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Second more controversial idea: legalize marijuana. Here is a $7.5 Billion dollar industry,right now, in BC. This is just through smoking it. Think of tourism for a second and the local economy if this homegrown BC product were opened up and taxed. Also, the other products that would undoubtedly become more popular through hemp. I once watched a program on TV where they were showing hemp fibers used to create a type of plywood and regular lumber that was superior to wood. The beauty of it, most sawmills wouldn't need to change too much in order to start using it. Same said for pulp form hemp fibers vs. wood chips. They could do it now, but there's no where near enough being grown. Talk about sustainability.

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Capital gains, whether they be from personal residences, investment RE, stocks or whatever aren't included in GDP because they're not income. They are capital transactions.

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Google Earth Tasmania

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the tax reassessment gig is hard to believe, who are they to say someone got too good a deal. makes me wonder if they would consider refunds for people who pay too much or for those whose condo's decrease in value from the pre-sale. contrary to what peter wall might say, developers do not leave money on the table.

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I can understand since the boom has begun numbers of realtors are increased as the sales to slide downward lets say 3300 units are selling now you can divide them between number of realtors.

Her office staff need to find another job as sales countinue to go lower from approximately 35,000 units in 2008 to 33,000 units in 2009.

Prices countinue to keep upward trends that's why i have ask you to clarify your motive if there was no intention behind- second job is a answer.

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1) Leonard Schein isn't just your average-Joe. He's a major local investor, and has been involved in developments, as I remember from when I was a kid. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he was one of those inner-circle types who get their choice of the best units in a new development at the best price. Think of the H&H and Sophia developments where industry insiders had gotten some sweet deals on condos… One of those sweet-deals wouldn't be an arms-length transaction, and could be subject to reassessment. Leonard was hoping that his sweetheart condo deal would be an even better deal by claiming back some of the GST…

2) Family probate. Probate was done in mid-2007, presumably using the property assessment they received in Jan 2007, which represents the Aug 2006 market value. They may well have had a realtor make a market assessment on the home in the summer of 2007, but didn't like the number and stuck with the BCAssessment. Everything went tickety-boo, and they thought they made out like bandits. Then this past January they received their new BCAssessment (theoretical value for August 2007), which better-represented the mid-2007 value than the previous year's assessment. Guess what? The tax man is looking out for this. That family has benefited from the rise in property values; they are much better-off than they would have been if property values hadn't risen at all, or than they would have been if last year's assessment was correct. The poor kids…

I'm happy to see that the CRA is watching out for honest taxpayers, by ensuring that frauds and borderline-frauds don't get away with it. All too often we hear of people getting away with tax fraud, be they underreporting rental income or otherwise. People cheating on their taxes increases the tax burden on honest people.

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She can read & write, and is reasonably intelligent. The considerable success she's had in the past few years have blinded her to other possibilities.

Krisssh or whoever — it's not just her. Everyone in her office, including several other previously successful realtors, are doing lousy business right now.

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