Maybe, if they had all their cash stored in a mattress at home.

Great Depression. People panicked, there was a run on the banks to withdraw savings. You were only allowed to withdraw 10% of your savings. Banks couldn’t give out loans either during that time. Many banks went bankrupt and people lost their savings too.

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I can’t say I took any of what was written as religious sentiment or propaganda, not that you’re implying as much.

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“B.C. consumers keep their heads above water despite rising debt”

http://www.canada.com/vancouve.....44efa1d928

One thing they don’t note is that BC’s lumber industry has contracted where construction expanded. No mention of the sustainability of the current construction levels, or lack of.

“Canada’s Home Inventories Rise Amid Cooling Demand”

http://www.economicnews.ca/cep.....cle/109322

I found this interesting too: “Electrical Wiring in BC Sub- Par”

http://www.canada.com/vancouve.....7073072f11

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http://www.thetrumpet.com/inde.....4.3734.0.0

“Canadian Countdown: Flood of Job Losses Coming?

A recent report from investment bank Merrill Lynch says house prices in Canada are clearly in bubble territory, with cities in the West especially so. The economic analysis, titled “Peaked: Canada’s Housing Market In Depth,” warns home prices are heading for a sustained downturn.

“We’re most concerned about Saskatchewan, where the doubling of house prices in both Regina and Saskatoon over the past two years has led us to estimate that these markets are now close to 50 percent overvalued—a level that our research denotes as the beginning of the ‘extreme’ zone where bust risks rise materially,” said the report (emphasis mine). After Saskatoon and Regina, the most overvalued homes are in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Sudbury, Calgary and Montreal.

The report stirred a firestorm of protest, from realtor associations and housing industry representatives, who claimed the report was flawed and that local conditions suggest home prices have not overly appreciated. In July, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also said: “There is no bubble in the Canadian housing sector, that has not been our concern.”

But to someone living in the U.S., the protests sound all too familiar.

During the lead-up to America’s historic housing bust, the airwaves were filled with the same sort of claims, from the same sort of people, as to why there was no bubble. Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the president of the National Association of Realtors, various lenders, builders and other government officials all claimed that soaring housing prices were sustainable—even as prices doubled, tripled and shot to multiples of household income.”

It’s worth everyone checking out.

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If I were a pusher, I think I would target a different crowd, perhaps Realtors,and flippers.

Some West Van Stock Brokers and their GF have the bucks as well.

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http://tinyurl.com/downtowneastside

The Downtown Eastside has always been the centre of Vancouver’s hard drug trade. In fact, Canada’s first drug prohibition law originated here, introduced a century ago after Mackenzie King investigated compensation claims stemming from the 1907 anti-Asian riots in Chinatown and Japantown. Some of the claims happened to come from opium manufacturers and King became especially alarmed when he learned the opium scourge was spreading to white women and girls.

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I noticed that when one specific poster is not posting discourteous comments on Rob’s blog, some of the regulars, even the polite ones, kick it up a notch and hurl unflattering ,although truthful insults at Rob.
It’s as though It creates a vacuum.

Rob doesn’t want to talk about the Rupert house anymore, although at first he thought it was great for exposure, it seems now he would rather move on with a new subject.

Any bets if you guys don’t stop posting about the Rupert house, he will change the thread to some esoteric subject?

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Another thought on deflation. True inflation is good for debtors, as those peddling more and more debt point out frequently. The people who actually run the world aren’t generally struggling under a crushing mortgage, and don’t really want the runaway inflation which is one way to work out this credit crunch. The other way, of course, is massive defaults, hence the urgency to get as much onto the governments books as possible, and scurry around behind the scenes getting their affairs in order. The pension funds of the little people (you and I) is a great place to have deflation as far as the “Lizard People” are concerned!

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Just as in the early 80′s, asset prices (RE and stocks) will fall and CPI will continue to rise. Wages will go nowhere nominally and total nominal payroll will fall due to reduced work hours.

So what would you like to call that?

Inflation/Deflation is not a single phenomenon, it can and does move in different directions on CPI, assets, and wages.

It goes without saying that if you’re saving cash to buy a house only RE price inflation/deflation matters.

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I’m sure this was the case in the US as well. Didn’t help many of them one bit. Renting out your basement when you lose your framing job(s) … Bzzzzzz!!!! You’re still in the red. All this under the table stuff was around in 2000 as well and property prices were much less.

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I think the times of an honest canadian are gone.
I seriously do not know of anyone who got (and stayed) in the market through honest to god work recently.

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Patriotz – You in the Deflationary Camp then? I have one foot in there as well, with the other foot undecided.

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I don’t have a sense for how “honest” Canadian loans are. It could be the problem is more subtle, where someone thinks they have higher long-term income than they do. A perfect example would be a construction worker or Realtor in San Diego, where in 2005 looking at their past 5 years of employment showed a stable and well-paid applicant. 2006 hits and all of a sudden there’s little to no work and this great looking salary used for stated income is useless.

I wonder how far back lenders in Canada go to check how stable employment income is. My guess is less than 5 years and the banks own economists are pretty much oblivious to any massive downturn in employment in construction/RE. Probably a more apt description is “La la la I’m not listening” loans.

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http://tinyurl.com/liarloans

Many homeowners with liar loans are stuck. They can’t refinance because housing prices in those markets have nose-dived, and lenders are now demanding full documentation of income and assets.

thank heaven for good ol’ “honest” canadians eh!

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http://watch.bnn.ca/monday/clip84090#clip84105

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“Bob Dugan, the chief economist for CMHC said high employment levels, rising incomes and low mortgage rates will keep the housing market relatively solid this year.

“Increased competition from the existing home market, coupled with the elimination of the pent-up demand that built up during the 1990s, will exert downward pressure on housing starts, which will decline to 194,000 units in 2009 from 215,000 in 2008,” he said.”

Sure OK Bob Dugan, you’re the economist, I suppose the downward presssure on housing starts won’t also translate on downward pressure on prices.

The good thing about the egg head economists, is that they can’t lie very well.

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