Re Calgary City Hall

No, you were right ….it IS communism.

What is often a major warning sign is when they raise taxes and also the perks levels to City Staff. This is the makings of a mini – fascist state. It's usually either the CAO or the Mayor (or possibly both )

They pay the staff well, keep the senior administration rolling in dollars and added perks…with severance packages in $100's of thousands of dollars. This gets them support and heads off internal coups…they often have a few heads rolling from time to time to send a message to the others.

The bunker mentality reins, having built the aforementioned walls at City Hall to protect them from the general public (ie their actual bosses) or frustrate them from mounting any opposition.

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Guess that explains why the Liberals took all the Calgary seats in the 2008 provincial election… oh sorry they only got 4 out of what, 20 or so?

Then I guess only eastern liberal types vote in Calgary civic elections. Well that's the fault of the 81% who don't vote, isn't it?

As for the "socialist" Calgary city council – would you believe that in Calgary you have to pay $12 a year to use the public library? Yes, it's true. Roll over, Andrew Carnegie, you old commie.

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What, only half? You're getting ripped off

I'm taking a 1-week Caribbean cruise out of Miami on the 6th, the brochure price is $1699 + 75% single supplement, I'm paying $135.00 and no single supplement. Yes, the port charges are almost double what the actual cruise line is getting, less than $20 a day, you read that right.

And I've got a March reservation for a week in Cuba, all inclusive (even drinks!) and including Vancouver return air fare, CDN $502 including all taxes that's the final price, which is something like a quarter of what the same vacation was a year ago.

So, yeah, for travel freaks like me it's the best time EVAR as the vacation industry plummets into collective bankruptcy, "50% off" isn't even close.

I'm kinda thinking that after those two little jaunts I'm going into serious cash conservation mode though. Might need it all pretty badly before this works itself out…

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Re the sales…

Do these sales simply reflect the transfer date ?

I other words, all or some of these sales you noted may have been negotiated before the RE crash, but what we see is that the sale has actually completed (and shows the other data associated with it).

I think the next few months will show even more major drops in the categories of "List" vs. "Sold" and Decline %, and thus they will be more reflective of the impact of the RE meltdown.

Re That house at $29.9 Million (list) selling for $25.9 Million (ie sold for $ 4 Million less) kind of indicates to me they still sold an overpriced listing to a sucker purchaser who may be on the railings of the Lions Gate Bridge as we speak (ie that house they bought for $25.9 Million is probably worth a lot less now and will continue to decline). That price range sounds like it must be in Point Grey waterfront, new home, on about an acre lot.( unless it's one of those pretentious hi end penthouse condos , but you did note your list was for SFH ).

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That's cheaper than many suburban homes in places like Coquitlam and its not the first time I've seen a Westside deal like this.

Yet Westside real estate is always so much more expensive…for now. This just shows you how little there is to justify million dollar tear-downs.

If I had kids, I'd rent a place like this and send them to one of those nice Westside schools.

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Any area that countinue earn appreciation also help to add more value into assessement i.e.100%+1 to 15% then banks keep 25% on hold and the left over amount get passed to the applicants in case of guarenteed expected appreciation bank can pass more part of 25% to the applicant or bank can hold more part otherway around.

Assessed value is best method to measure current market value than the hpi by the real estate board because board is unable to take a solid grasp of sold properties in any perticular area but city gets hard factual information in their system a recorded value of multiple units sold in any perticular area at any perticular time.

Tax is not based on assessed value but tax is based on the future budget for city and where to get that money from when city figured out how much money they want to generate through perticular channels then it's easy to calculate total amount through assessed value.

In 2007 and 2008 there was no big change in property taxes.

In the side note "buyers who did not shop for home yet are starting to trailing behind who ever did a complete shopping".-Flash1.

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Yes, unfortunately we have had an influx of eastern liberal types (due to economic immigration) in the last 3 years. Sorry to say…..

Our current Mayor, Dave Bronconnier, is a red liberal to the core, and was thinking about running for the provincial party's top spot, but declined…..half of city council plus the one vote needed to rule, is uber left wing…….

I don't know why no one showed up to the civic election either, except to say that perhaps good 'ole voter apathy was the reason……Vancouver only had 22% voter turnout in your recent civic election IIRC……go figure eh ? And look what the result was there. A christmas cake got elected mayor.

What happened here was that Bronconnier wanted a 9.5% property tax increase to pay for the city budget ($500 a year per home), and as a result people got so pissed off (the city hall hearing room was overflowing outside in the halls, with around 800 people showing up in a room that holds 300, on consecutive hearing days, phones were ringing off the hook, etc) that they cut the tax increase back to 5%……

But it is not over yet, they want to build a $1.5MM gym for city hall staff whenthey can drive 5 minutes, or walk 15, to the best one we have here, and a couple of $25MM foot bridges over the Bow river…..people here are really pissed off now…..and the mayor is really kissing ass and sucking wind.

Lula is a communist. Commies call themselves "socialists" because communist is a bad word. Socialism is the same as communism, but without the guns and gulags.

Lula is toast. In September's Brasilian legislative elections, the PT Party (Lula's party) lost their seats in every in every population center over 200K……the only people who voted for him were the outright poor who live in the NE of Brasil, and who get handouts for free from his government. I'm not saying helping the poor is bad, just stating a fact.

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http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul…

Maybe this is a harbinger of things to come, and that the Olympic movement is becoming over-ripe. The Global economy has over-saturated brand names, and many think the Olympics is a waste of resources. Given the IOC gypsy/bandits have raped and pillaged just about every major country now that China has just hosted them in 2008 , perhaps people will have connected the dots and see the litany of lies and debt once the Olympics side show leaves town.

Maybe public floggings will make a comeback…for any politician that even dares suggest an Olympic bid be submitted, given many will see it is a big negative simply funding political egos.

Toronto was a bit pissed when they lost the 2008 games to Beijing, but maybe Toronto is heaving a collective sigh of relief…given the summer games cost Billions, their economy is tanking, and the last thing they need is is an additional 30 year fiscal debt "hangover" like Montreal had since 1976 Olympics. They played the 2008 Grey Cup in the Big "Owe" ..but what else do they do with that white elephant from 1976?

I think its a given that with BC economy down…we will see an increase in 2010 Olympic boosterism as a desperate by BC Gov't in an attempt to deflect attention and keep people upbeat. The danger Gordo runs is people seeing through this type of classical smokescreen tactic by Gov'ts and simply expediting a revolt by the masses.

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Not true. If our local government decides to spend EXACTLY the same amount as last year, but EVERYONES assesment doubles, thier taxes will remain the same. If one half of the cities assessment doubles and the other half remains the same then the doubled assessments have to take on a higher portion of the tax burden.

Assessments here only matter in relation to other assessments. We're different from California in that way.

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