Friday Free-for-all!
Ah! The weekend! Make it through the next week and you get a long weekend as your reward. The end of the week is also when we do our news link round up. Here are a few stories I’ve noticed:
-Weakness in economy helps home buyers
-Construction workers to be drug tested after accidents
-Gas and food drive inflation higher
-Global economic confidence at lowest level since 2001
-The slippery issue of oil market speculation
-Bailouts for Fannie and Freddie?
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
note: any conversation on Vancouver, 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!
RSS 2.0 comments feed. leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
http://www.canada.com/vancouve.....fe733f8f3f
There is no shortage of jobs at other game companies though; most of these guys should find another local job fairly easily.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
http://www.latimes.com/busines.....1747.story
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
http://tinyurl.com/chilliwhack
A Chilliwack realtor gunned down in his car late Wednesday was closely associated with the notorious United Nations criminal organization,
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
Mostly they seem to be getting bad press for air pollution, faking documents and arresting old ladies who apply for permission to protest eviction from their homes. We should be doing something about our problems here at home - the ‘highest property crime rate in North America’ and the ‘HIV infection rate as bad as Botswana’ is bound to get us some negative press.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Gordon’s slaying comes just a month after another UN realtor, Elliott (Taco) Castaneda, was shot to death in Guadalajara, Mexico
Geezus! Who knew realtor was such a risky profession.
Do the police confiscate houses purchases with ‘the proceeds of crime’?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
Smoking trades people.
Shootings.
Layoffs.
WCB looking for ways to avoid paying claims.. duh.. testing AFTER accidents..lol, not before??
Vancouver is different..
Weakness in economy helps buyers..? really?
Gas prices drive up inflation.. Well, were they thinking it was going to get cheaper..?
Stretched mortgage payers: I think they were stretched when the tip of the pen on the paper with oh so fine print.
Yesterday I had a mature woman bitch about me parking my gas miser too close to her new fancy SUV at the 7-11 store..
gee..i wonder if she was a real estate agent.
Maybe it will be safer if I leave BC for a while, let em slug it out between them.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Of course it will be different, we have the WINTER Olypmics! Who doesn’t love the excitement of curling? Or the freezing rain at that time of year to show off the beauty of Vancouver?
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
I don’t think you’re going to be the first (or last) to leave this sinking ship. With no other industry besides one imbecile flipping his crap condo to another (even stupider) imbecile - we’re screwed!
Will the last person out of BC please turn out the lights? (we’re a Green province, don’t ya know).
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
We could always go for the Chinese solution: mobile execution vans.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
I used to bike through the Olympic Village construction site. Along the cement dividers (blocking off the bike route) it was not uncommon to ride through a cloud of pot smoke. You would see them sitting there, lighting up. Terrible!
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Calgary is starting to see it now….a 650 unit two tower downtown high rise was halted today. “Higher costs” is the story….but the bank has the file….hmmmm…..another hole in the ground I have to watch out for.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
This, in the face of 3.4% inflation? So confusing.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Realtor is indeed a very risky profession. If you are a realtor and you are singing cock-&-bull stories about real estate going up-up-up to one of you clients who is a representative of a mafia boss that is not highly improbable in Vancouver. Finally they buy. Cash deal. Few months passed. Suddently the market goes down and it happens that cash is needed back. Oops. The realtor tries to offload the property(ies) - no luck. But the owner is expecting fat profit…
I leave it here for guessing and speculating what would be happening next…
… maybe realtors are still eligible for professional malpractice liability coverage in such cases?
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
http://www.canada.com/theprovi.....5ed2a88402
The Bank of Canada will be comforted that its core inflation rate, which excludes mortgage-interest costs and certain volatile energy and food prices, and which it monitors for underlying price trends, remained at 1.5 per cent.
However, Shenfeld said the low core inflation rate is of little comfort to most consumers.
“If you don’t drive, don’t have a mortgage payment, and don’t eat fresh produce, you’re in luck,” Shenfeld said. “But the typical Canadian has all of those costs.”
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
This is all going to end badly. Too bad we put all our social services funds for detox beds and treatment programs into Olympic infrastructure… perhaps we can convince the NIMBYs in Richmond to let us refurbish that speed skating oval after the games…
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Are you suggesting that the Federal Government was going to send B.C. money for detox beds but instead diverted it towards the Olympics?
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
The wage pie remains the same size but consumer prices are increasing. Corporate revenues can slice the pie any way they want, it still isn’t getting any bigger.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
A friend of mine in construction is worried about exactly this. He says there are many functioning addicts out there because they’re making $60-80k, and he wonders how they’re going to function when they no longer can support their habit.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
He’s worrying about what happens later? Let’s all hope workmanship and the ability to wield a nail gun don’t require sobriety.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I hear sentences like
“making $60-80k”
and
“condo mortgage and big, shiny truck payments”
Is 60-80 considered a high salary?
I don’t know…. I make a bit more than that, the wife brings in some more (sorry modesty, anectodal value needed), and I drive a 1992 car, and rent our place. We cook all our food from scratch.
I don’t see how 60-80 covers new truck + house + marijuana. And my Excel sheet has all my expenses and incomes down to the penny.
I have a slight suspicion that the abovementioned construction worker doesn’t have his Excel sheet up to date…
Living IS expensive.
Best regards
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
80K
After taxes
60K
Per month
5k
Truck payment ~500
4.5k
Mortgage for 600,000 condo ~2500
2.0 k
Marijuana ~300
1.7k
communications (cell,TV, cable, etc) ~300
1.4k
Food, alcohol, fun and restaurants ~800
0.6k
gas for truck ~400
0.2k
Insurance for truck ~200
0.0k
Matches for marijuana ~0.05
Negative monthly expenses…
No money for toilett paper.
Regards
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
If they are I am sure they all carry Errors and Omissions insurance.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Arit, don’t let the idiot make fun of you for being smarter than him, he’s just mad that he believed the salesman and spent all his money on a unit at TV Topwers that’s already worth $20,000 less than he paid and will clearly drop at least $2,000 every month for decades.
Hey Krissh, did you see they can make land? You really should invest in a brain or just go away
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Flat income + consumer price inflation = RE price deflation.
Don’t forget that folks.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
“pls check with government to see how land making machine invention is coming”
Your the nut bar believing they aint making any land remark. What is old will be torn down and made new. The government and big business has land to sell when they want to. Finally Canada is the second largest country and our population is very low.
The coming decade will be different, all markets will change.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Krissh
Satv
Informer
whatever other nutjob names he comes up with is all the same fool:
http://vancouvercondo.info/for.....3&t=48
There has been debate as to whether he’s an idiot with multiple personalities or just some bored guy pretending to be an idiot with multiple personalities.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Seems funny he/it disappears the same time you do.
You aren’t by chance posting under different handles are you?
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
http://www.realestatebull.com/
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
http://www.canada.com/calgaryh.....f1de8f0f5b
“Layoffs strike Calgary’s once-booming homebuilders”
Blah, blah, booms aren’t sustainable, blah blah, here comes the bust.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
“hey arit, you need longer arms and shorter pockets cheapo! suprised you shelled out for internet access! ha ha you’r missing a penny! ha ha”
Hey Browntown,
I agree with you. I AM cheapo.
You did not explain yet how you can have “all of the above” on 80k. Do you mind?
Regards,
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
With the risk of wasting valuable electrons, I will try to address your common sense… I admit not being overly optimistic.
Think about added value. We all come here to read valuable information and share our own. You, John, and now you, Martin, chose the ’sarcastic’ way. Which is funny.
But what value do we get from your posts? What do I know after reading your posts that I did not know before?
Even simplistic posts like “I walked my dog today in New Westnabymond and saw 23 ‘For Sale’ signs in 30 minutes” have value, as ‘reports from the trenches’.
If you have absolutely nothing to share, you could comment on other people’s ideas. That also has value, as other people do look for feedback.
But the constant rethoric a la parrot is just wasted scren real estate. Nobody gains anything from it, except maybe a few laughs, which are OK I guess, but I can also get them at Julie Gobson’s site (when it returns).
Best regards,
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Perhaps you might open your eyes a little and consider NOT painting whole swaths of a workforce with the same brush in your apoleptic fury at the blue collar worker.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
“I think you’ve been blinded by your own bubble-induced rage”
I think you totally mis-understood my post. I claimed that this budget is NOT possible. This situation CANNOT be happening. I actually agree with you. And in order to prove that, I drew a budget with the abovementioned claims showing that clearly they cannot be true.
So, to summarize: The claim of 80k construction workers with expensive condos, new shiny trucks and Marijuana cannot be true.
I would guess that, out of those who make 80k, SOME have condos, SOME have trucks, SOME have pot, and some have all of the above with debt.
Is it clearer now?
Regards
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
If you only knew my past… LOL! you would not be saying that.
I assume you meant ‘epileptic’.
Regards,
arit
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I too walk past the Dodge Superduty Diesels and Hemi 300C’s at the construction sites. If you think that these guys aren’t enjoying their big pay day now then you’re nuts.
One carpenter told me he made the same wage from 1973 until the last five years when his wage doubled (+overtime he’s making 6 figures).
To Give you some credit his daily driver is a mid 90’s caravan. He figures the majority of his co workers are alcoholics and have kids etc.
It looks like Arit and Pardon Me are saying the same thing.
$60-80K is a high wage and yet it won’t even buy a poorly built condo outside a homeless person camp like TV Towers (which will easily drop 80% in the next decade).
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I think he meant “apoplectic”, which means “get so mad you think you’re gonna burst a blood vessel”
Imaging being trapped in a room with Satv. Thumbs and / or Rob A. for a week. That would drive you to an apoplectic rage.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
“get so mad you think you’re gonna burst a blood vessel”
That is value added to me, a new word. Thank you.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
No carpenter I EVER worked with would so much as drink a beer before tools were rolled up. It’s too dangerous.
Maybe I worked with different cats, but that’s my experience.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Backbone Entertainment just let go a bunch of people too. There’s a lot of software engineers and artists looking for work right now.
If EA continues it’s slide, expect a round of layoffs early next year.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 am
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:41 am
You can also have an investment recession, where business spends less money on new facilities and new products, which is what the dot-com bust of 2000 was.
The upcoming recession actually looks like a combination of consumer and investment (new RE is investment). A double whammy.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Greater fools borrow the money to buy inflated assets; inflated because it’s faster to inject cheap money into the economy than to build homes, and so for a couple of years there are more fools with money than homes.
Eventually the artificially inflated demand is met with an actual oversupply of homes is created as is the case now.
The crash is in the early stages. It’s not different this time. It never is.
The Real Estate Pimps have pulled it off again in Vancouver, and they will pull it off again in 20 years or so.