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Friday Free-for-all!

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142 Comments

Its time for our regular end of the week news round-up and open topic discussion.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately to kick off the discussion:

–Greater Vancouver average house price drops 8% from 2007
–Canadian house prices down, blame British Columbia
-Infinity Surrey condo tower: Anyone got $100 million?
-Victoria: development halts at $1.4 billion cappela condos
-Kelowna: 21 story condo development grinds to a halt
–angry condo owners seek stronger protection
–Realtors to host grow-op meeting
-The end is here for 40 year mortgages
–banks push locked-in mortgages
–CMHC buys $5 billion worth of mortgages from banks
-Conference Board of Canada: No recession in Canada
-Bank of Montreal: Canada can not avoid recession & deficit
-Vanoc: $48 million deficit for 2008
–Japanese shares market drops 11.4%
-Construction cranes nearly extinct in Miami
-Paulson: regulation bad! er.. regulation good!

Phew! So how’s everyone doing out there?  Is it time to panic? Time to buy?  Time to hide under the covers with your fingers in your ears?  What are you seeing out there?  Post your news, links and anecdotes here and have a great relaxing non-panic filled weekend!

UPDATE: The CBC Early Edition is putting together a story for Monday morning and would like to talk to anyone who invested in a development and is trying to get their deposit back, or those who have succeeded in getting their deposit back.  Contact jennifer.chen@cbc.ca or elizabeth.hoath@cbc.ca if you have a story to share.  Tell ’em VancouverCondo.info sent you!

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!

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jesse

"They are a LOT different from a stock broker:"

I'd say there is more similarity of a Realtor to a financial advisor than a "stock broker", the latter of whom is more a technician and is prevented from offering financial advice.

Ask your financial advisor, should you have one, about commission disclosure of the specific funds and stocks they are selling. I would treat a home purchase with a Realtor with as much, if not more, skepticism as advice from a commissioned investment dealer.

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NO -LYMPICS

I was reading about the Quattro in Surrey, the one that burned down, and how they had a meeting yesterday in Surrey amongst developer, realtors, bankers and purchasers in . This will be an interesting project to watch as a market parameter. In todays paper, one buyer stated he bought into this project based on brochures of having "Yaletown" in Surrey's Whalley area (LOL !) but all he sees is addicts and fights. He requested a refund , but was told he can't get his money back unless he sells. Given the fire will obviously move all timelines forward, and people will not get any funds REfunded , I wonder how many will choose Plan B and simply walk and the whole thing falls into bankruptcy? I mean, for all intents and purposes…they are starting fresh with new construction like… Read more »

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alexcanuck

they are not much different than a stock broker

5. I can call my stockbroker and say "sell" and he will say "(clickety-click) Done."

Liquidity, baby! Anyone out there wish they had a bit more liquidity right about now?

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NO -LYMPICS

Patriotz:

I appreciate your insight, and whatever expertise you have and collectively adding to the debate.

My previous take on realtors was on the theme that they promote a commodity, and their bread and butter is commission – based on both ends of the transaction ie Buying and Selling.

They will promote the given commodity in as positive a light as possible…Stock Brokers and realtors literally read out of the same sales manual . That's the basics, they are very similar , the rest is just hair-splitting semantics .

It's often not in their interest to be candid, but to promote things on the upbeat/positive light, that IS my point.

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Dave

It sounds like patriotz is in the equity business.

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patriotz

they are not much different than a stock broker

They are a LOT different from a stock broker:

1. Stocks are sold on an open market with known bid and ask prices.

2. Stockbrokers do not negotiate selling prices. The market does that.

3. Stockbrokers are not paid on a % commission basis.

4. Stockbrokers are forbidden from making any representation about the future performance of stocks.

Those with more knowledge of the securities industry may add more.

Realtors are like used car salesmen, except a used car salesman would never claim that the car he's trying to sell will be worth more next year.

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NO -LYMPICS

It's too bad Canadians are so insular and have been brainwashed into thinking what happens elswhere won't happen here. Having many relatives in the eastern U.S. we muse how what happens in the U.S. on mnay fronts eventually finds it way north to Canada … it used to maybe a 5-10 year delay lag. Now it is much quicker, like the border doesn't exist. Without trying to casting Realtors in a negative light….they are not much different than a stock broker simply promoters, they are promoting a commodity which in this case is real estate. It is their job to promote, not critique or criticize. One well known local realtor and I had a conversation re: the business, and he said that of his original class of approx. 30 realtors who graduated from the licensing program, only 2 were still… Read more »

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Keeping an Eye on th

“Realtors are incapable of feeling silly. Read Tim Ayres’ response of 19 October on the 624blog (link above) to see what I’m talking about.”

Patriotz: Agreed, in general, Maggie, Rob, Aaron, come to mind. But in all fairness, there are those like Jeff, Paul, and the realtor below and I quote:

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/real-estate-c…

Get a grip, I’m a Realtor on the front lines in Victoria. I see the disaster that is slowly unfolding. Don’t fool yourself into believing that Canadian 40 years ams aren’t the American version of subprime. Rampant overbuilding, greedy speculators, and buyers that just ‘need to get in right now’. The writing is on the wall people

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patriotz

Whomever wrote that crap on the Sooke blog is going to feel pretty silly for writing what he has and leaving an open forum…

Realtors are incapable of feeling silly. Read Tim Ayres' response of 19 October on the 624blog (link above) to see what I'm talking about.

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bdk

Whomever wrote that crap on the Sooke blog is going to feel pretty silly for writing what he has and leaving an open forum…

"You would have to be seriously dimb or delusional to think that prices can only fall 30% now that investor sentiment has changed, supply far exceeds demand, and the world is slipping into a recession.

We will be lucky to get out with only a 50% drop!

Especially in a backwater town like Sooke which had gone too high too fast.

Prices will go up again just give it 25 years or so….."

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Anonymous

Keeping an Eye on the Pimps:

Prices here in Victoria are not inflated beyond their sustainability. These $100,000 price drops are not going to happen.

Stop drinking the kool-aid. Commodity prices are tanking right now, especially Oil which is running at $75 a barrel, almost half of its high at $140. Canadian companies will be laying people off as consumers world wide, especially in the US, cut down on spending.

Home prices in BC can only go:

DOWN,

DOWN,

and DOWN.

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Keeping an Eye on th

"he nearly bit my head off." You are brave. It is very dangerous to do what you did. It's much like telling a gambler who has just won, that gambling is not a good thing. Your friend has probably drank the Kool-aid,and actually believes: http://642blog.ca/2007/12/27/strong-and-balanced-… Why is the Canadian economy booming, while the United states is suffering? I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. I read this post on a local real estate bear blog which, while clever, is wholly inaccurate. What the bubble-blowers here in Victoria fail to note is that the reasons for our continued economic success here in Canada are not the usual Canadian success stories of manufacturing in Ontario and Quebec brought on by a favourable exchange rate. The rise of the dollar over the last 24 months and the expansion of our… Read more »

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just saying

Just had a conversation with a realtor friend of mine. When I suggested that things probably wont be better next spring (IMHO) he nearly bit my head off.

Tensions are rising…

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bdk

Sounds like the reason Dave has so much time on his hands (enough time to try to run disinformation on several blogs at once)!

“The real estate boom lured many new real estate agents, mortgage originators, appraisers, home inspectors, and title and escrow workers. Now, the slowdown is hitting many of these same people the hardest, forcing them to cut back, find second jobs or change careers altogether.”

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NO -LYMPICS

Interesting stuff re: Buffet and the Country Wide Financial " rumour" , and the associated company which built luxury homes..

Re: old "pearls of wisdom" ….Sort of reminds me of why Wal Mart has ben so successful .

" You can become poor catering to the Rich $$$….

" You can become rich $$$ catering to the Poor "

PS the hourly rate condo is probably a joke… way too obvious..much like when someone put the NDP Fast Cat Ferries on E-Bay.

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Keeping an Eye on th

Renting a place by the hour is perfectly fine. I keep an eye on this market segment .

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Anonymous

"Buffett hasn’t been bulletproof lately. He invested in Countrywide Financial at the height of the bubble. Can uncle Warren tell us how did that one go?"

this says he didn't. did he really?

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Drachen

Anonymous

There's only one reason people rent a room by the hour. Normally it's only the seediest of hotels that even have an hourly rate. Any working girl making a decent amount of money just gets a room for the night and uses it multiple times.

Yes I do know a bit about these things but it's not what you think! My best friend in HS helped out at the motel his family owned which was cheap and near the working girls.

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Asun

Buffett hasn't been bulletproof lately. He invested in Countrywide Financial at the height of the bubble. Can uncle Warren tell us how did that one go?

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Brad

ING news:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93T…

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Anon

Retirees flocking to Victoria.

Well, with the new tent city growing in Beacon Hill Park and their leader saying on the news their goal is to expand to parks in Oak Bay I am sure many retirees will be moving to Victoria in droves.

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cashisking

Shangra-Lai (sorry about the spelling) …. prediction it won't be built

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Anonymous

anybody need to rent a place by the hour?

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/apa/879837220.h…

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NO -LYMPICS

jfk and fruitcake….

Do you two think alike, exist in parallel universes, or are you the same person, given you eerily similar posts ?

Fruitcake : who is L.H. Oswald

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