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Friday Free for All!

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Those of you that are regular visitors know what this means. The ‘free for all’ post is a general news round-up and open topic discussion we do every weekend. Here are a few stories I’ve noticed this week:

-zero down mortgages ‘have been quite popular‘
–price drops on the outskirts and upper end
–cracks in housing market spur new rules?
-new rules won’t deflate market
–buy now, save later
–house sales slow across North Shore
-lower mainland house prices start to sag
–building still booms in Vancouver
–REBGV listings continue rapid growth
–leaky condo crisis far from over
-Bank of Canada urged to raise interest rates
-new Canadian bankruptcy laws
-six months, 343,000 lost homes
-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, too big to fail?
–Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares plummet

So what are you seeing out there? Post your thoughts, news links and anecdotes here and have an excellent 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. Pasting a link will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Thanks!

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Thums up2

Sophia,

Imagine if your sister in ad is a con artist the new owner will be glad to ride her on highway all life long.

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VanTOVan

Uh oh

From the G&M

"Home prices slip for first time in nine years"
http://tinyurl.com/6xfm8v

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blueskies

i posted this on rob's blog: from the Sun today: http://tinyurl.com/wearedoomed from the article: ….In B.C., the decline from the first to second quarter of this year was 5.1 per cent ….. …..this is the second consecutive quarter of decline and that is a concern…… ….this could be an indication that the economic sands may be shifting in B.C…….. ….Among metropolitan areas, 21 of 34 saw declines in the value of construction with the steepest being in Vancouver…… ….A report by Reed Construction Data warned Monday Canadian home prices may be poised for a fall….. ….Prices won’t rise more than inflation this year and could fall as much as five per cent in inflation adjusted terms………..that paints a much darker outlook for the housing sector than the real estate industry is currently projecting…… ….The real, inflation adjusted, change in housing… Read more »

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condohype

Bank of Canada has announced they're holding steady on the interest rate at 3%.

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Drachen

"Middle-aged women w/ leathery skin and questionable intelligence are a dime a dozen."

You'd pay that much? Even if she was throwing in the house for free I'd need some kind of time limit. At least the one in Florida was attractive by some people's definition (with her extended patio!)

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scullboy

Anonymous:

So you've met krrrrish's mom then?

Oh way, she's a nasty old hag with leathery skin and there's no question of her intelligence. I mean look what she let slither out of her festering loins…..

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Anonymous

Middle-aged women w/ leathery skin and questionable intelligence are a dime a dozen.

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Re-diculous

Hey, a slow RE market brings out innovative sales techniques…this listing comes with a wife !
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Microgalleries/Deven/

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Thums up2

Q and Q

Banks only start their process when there is no response from the mortgagee,There are lots provision that can solve the problem but you must call your bank or lawyer in advance otherwise that could be too late.

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Michael Randallbard

Hi friends

You guys will never believe this but I bought into a piece of land NE of Husdon Bay SK a month ago. I paid 30,000.00 for it and its now worth about 100,000.00 in one month. Seems they found what might be the biggest coal find on the planet right beneath and there is talk of the value of my share going to 6.5 million dollars by XMAS

If anyone wants to look at this land its on Google Earth

53 degrees 10' 13" N by 102 degrees 03' 45.13" W

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Anonymous

Patriotz,Betamax,Drachen is right.-tu2.

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patriotz

. Yes, you’ll insured, but the 40-yr term will no longer be available. They’ll have to get a 35-yr, with no great difference to monthly pmt.

If you start with a 40 year amortization, after 5 years what you have is a 35 year amortization.

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The Van Man

VancouverBanker, CMHC introduced mortgage backed securities way back in 1986 as a means to lower finance costs to home buyers. In 2001, they did one up better by introducing CMB (Canada Mortgage Bond), which is insured and backed by the government. It works like the ABCP (Asset Backed Commercial Paper), which is currently in trouble. There a lot of this being sold, almost record amount and big and small lenders turn to CMB, because sub-prime had dried up all other sources of funding. So, if Canadian home prices start to fall and fall steep, what would happen to bond holders of the CMB even if it's insured by the government. Will the housing fall out hurt the banks more or CMHC? Will it be a replay for the ABCP like we see now? Remember that all of this didn't get… Read more »

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VancouverBanker

"I personally don’t think our major banks will fail. They’re too smart, simply because they learned their mistakes in the early 80s. "

I work for one of the Big Five and I can tell you first-hand the people who work here are not smart. Secondly, they didn't learn anything from the 80s. They're not going to fail, but the housing fallout is going to hurt them bad, at least here in Vancouver. All the big banks have driving revenue like crazy the last few years and now they're all freaking out because they're over-exposed and trying desperately to cut down their exposure any way possible.

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betamax

I think you’re insured for the term Boomerang, you’re just re-negotiating the interest and such.

Respectfully disagree. Yes, you'll insured, but the 40-yr term will no longer be available. They'll have to get a 35-yr, with no great difference to monthly pmt.

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Patiently Waiting

"Mr. Emery identified three factors leading to the recent drop in grow-ops in B.C.: effective police enforcement has increased the risks; a strong Canadian dollar has made exports less profitable; and a downturn in the U.S. economy has led to many Americans trying their hands as suppliers."

I don't usually toot my own horn, but this is something I mentioned on this site a few months ago. ;^) I believe it was this site.

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Drachen

I think you're insured for the term Boomerang, you're just re-negotiating the interest and such.

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YLTNBoomerang

Dumb question but with 40 year amort no longer available, will all those with existing 40 year amorts have to take on a shorter period when their renewal term arrives? I mean if you have a 3 year term on a 40 year amort, when the three years is up and you have to renegotiate what if the fed has tightened up even more and only allows 25 year amorts???

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/dev/null

Quite the dog-pile of economic "bad news" lately. Another BC industry falling on hard times?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGA…

Maybe a bit less cash out there for people to pick up their eighth condo?

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Bubble Lad

Anybody for "stump the chump"?
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTG…

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calgary boy

Must be a mistake, CMHC, et,al forecast called for single digit price appreciation for 2008, so I guess between now and the end of year, we will see 20% price appreciation, and why not, Calgary is so close to the 2010 Olympic city, has oil, no subprime, and a thriving porn industry.

Oh, golly gee, I never thunk of that. 🙂

Well definitely a good time to buy then. I'm going to stop being a bitter renter now and buy the first house I see — I can probably see quite a few from my front door.

(btw, I didn't know about the porn industry)

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Bizznitch

Tons of sale on the Island now. Always a good thing. 🙂

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Anonymous

Went for a swim in West Van today, on the drive home noticed a lot of very very very nice homes.. for sale.

Dont they want to live there anymore? Something wrong?

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A+

"Calgary – last year’s average SFH for July was $505.

First 11 days of the month average SFH for July is $454.

That’s 10% decline YoY."

Must be a mistake, CMHC, et,al forecast called for single digit price appreciation for 2008, so I guess between now and the end of year, we will see 20% price appreciation, and why not, Calgary is so close to the 2010 Olympic city, has oil, no subprime, and a thriving porn industry.

And smart investors will know that when Atlantis emerges, Calgary will be an ocean front city, but please don’t tell Don Campbell about this, he will start marketing this idea at the expense of Rob Rennie.

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