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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The costs of the Olympic Village seem to keep going up, but one economist says Vancouverites won’t end up being hit too hard.

One billion dollars is the latest figure released by the City of Vancouver for the Athletes’ Village. Dr. Tsur Somerville is a UBC economist who says our credit rating may be damaged in the short term, but it’s nothing we can’t recover from.

“Clearly they’re going to say the City’s financial position is worse, and that it’s likely to affect the credit rating but not in a severe way.”

Somerville says after retrieving most of the revenue dumped into the project from housing sales, the village should only end up costing Vancouverites about $275 million.

And he says there is more than enough assets in property endowment funds the City could sell to cover those costs.

How much they pay this shhhmuck.

here’s the link.

http://www.news1130.com/news/l.....0716_35852

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So you were in on it, too, eh?

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I don’t think you’re a RE troll or a racist. I just think you’re a very young guy (let me guess, between 20 and 25) who spent most of his life in Richmond, except for the odd vacation here and there.

If you replace “Chinese” with “tech worker” and “RE” with “Nortel” you’d be in Toronto in 2000. I can’t tell you how many people I knew who said quite firmly they “would never sell for less then they bought”.

Well, they didn’t. They discovered they were never millionaire, they were just told they were millionaires.

The Asians you know aren’t rich, either. And they’ll still have their cash in the bank, so they probably won’t be homeless. But they sure as hell won’t be “millionaires” either. I suspect Richmond shops will see an awful lot of second hand gold jewelry come flooding in during the next few months.

You’re so cute and naive, I could just pinch you. I can wait to see the surprised look on your face when this all comes down. Really. Do you mind if I take a photo? I think I’ll call it “Millennial discovered the world doesn’t Revolve Around Him.”

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Agree with what you say…people , “in theory ” are or should responsible for what they do.

However,
“Buyer Beware” is usually what the Judge will say after you have taken the net and swept everybody onto court.

The seller of new product has the upper hand via the legal documents, numbered companies etc. Most buyers are stretched -thin ” One – Ofs ”

Older product…Buyer Beware is no different than a used car… most warranties no longer apply = “As -Is Where -Is ” .

“Buyer Beware” creates finality…which is necessary in the Big Picture.

However, the Buyer is not forced to buy. The flaw lies in the Buyers lack of awareness , lack of due – diligence, and little if any knowledge of the product they are buying. The point of no return is when they sign on the dotted line.

Unless outright deceived or victim of fraud, , the buyer is basically dressed up in a sheep costume and holding up a sign to the seller/vendor ” PLEASE take advantage of ME “.

Unfortunately,…many sellers/vendors take that cue.
I’ve explained the cure/prevention earlier.

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People are responsiblie for what they do, whether it be buyer, seller, inspector, builder, contractor, architect, plumber or blog poster.

“Buyer beware” has a tendency to put an admittedly practical but nevertheless morally incorrect burden on the buyer. So spare us your juvenile worldly wisdom.

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January 12th, 2009 at 1:55 am
NO -LYMPICS: realpaul: p.s. People who bought the leaky condos did get them inspected and the home inspectors gave many the thumbs up.

===============================================
re Home Inspection…
Any Home Inspector (and please note they all come from diiferent backgrounds and core expertise ) can only identify blatant “non latent” defects. They can’t run around with hammer and do destructive testing ie Gee I thin their may be rot behind the wall lest opa hole and find out.

They can check many other systems in the house…but things behind walls are a very difficult if not impossible to detect.
The best they can do is an educated guess, though one home inspector was on TV several weeks ago using an InfraRed device (non intrusive )and was able to reveal water migration etc in the walls.

Any credible home inspector cannot go into a new condo an say its a leaker…it hasn’t leaked yet…but he ALSO shouldn’t give thumbs up either, he should identify the building style,and lay out the scenarios for his client based on probabilities from past examples and experiences.

The absolute worst to avoid and ripe for building envelope failure are those with no roof overhang …vertical walls that turn 90 degrees into the roof.

Best credo?
THINK LIKE WATER…water can be insidious…and one should look at how the building envelope will prevent water infiltration at each and every point . Design has become far too complex and this prevention of water infiltration task is made extremely difficult. Such seemingly minor things as outdoor decks whereby a vertical railing post fastened to a horizontal deck being fastened and caulked at the transition point seems insignificant,BUT I say famous last words,as it is ripe for failure to stop water infiltration and rot later on.

Single Family Homes(SFH)
Keep in mind that stratas tend to do the due diligence and keep on top of this. However SFH will become a nightmare,..the owner is not obligated to monitor it,thye are 100% responsble , many don’t know and don’t care… and these McMansions with stucco are built under the same techniques and style ……and exist under the exact same conditions that created leaky condos.

Even after the Leaky Condo inquiry, I still see the same poor practices and we will be due for another wave of the same . Blame your architect and Gov’t, everybody in between is generally following orders according to the plan in front of them.

Buyer Beware !!!

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I think your trying hard to rationalize your unethical behavior, but it’s not going to work. It just makes you appear more and more avoidant of taking responsibility in the fiasco. Someday you will have to face what you did head on. Sorry about that.

Have you ever bought a car which someone knowingly made the brakes faulty on (and the mechanic who inspected it was in on the game) and then sold it to you and laughed at you behind your back?

Buyer beware.

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“I take it that you not only got burned in the leaky condo mess but then expected to make it up on appreciaition but now find the market crushing your dreams yet again. Life’s a beach senor.”

How wrong you are. I am not your sandwich meat. I just can’t understand how you could have knowingly been involved in building leaky condos and yet seem to be so proud of yourself and blame everyone else for the fiasco but your kind. To me it doesn’t compute. But keep it coming. Having someone with your mentality on the blog is very educational for the rest of us who are basically honest people who care about the underdog, or “sandwich meat”as you call us. Very informative. Maybe Arit is used to people like you so he thinks it is fine.

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Yawn.

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I really don’t have any remedy for you. I suggest that you can buy a million dollar home ASAP, otherwise you’ll miss the boat … to a la la land.

Wish you the best!

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You people keep on bashing real estate but whenever I talk to a Chinese person in Richmond, they’re saying, “yeah, go listen to the media, who’s selling below their buy price? I certainly won’t.” Asians ARE different from North Americans, they have a lot of savings while North Americans tend to use a lot of leverage.

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Pick up a Chinese Real Estate paper recently?
There’s been more million dollar homes now than there are a few years ago. So prices skyrocketed from 6 figures to 7 figures. Let’s say from 600,000 to 1.5 million now. Take off 20% and it’s still over a million, how’s that?

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Yes, I’ve been through a few downtown presentation centres in my day, but just to kick the tires. I would never buy something where you are so guaranteed to not be told anything useful, especially at the prices they were asking.

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Are there any good, affordable condos in the Vancouver area? I know there are some nice, expensive condos downtown. I mean, is there anything worth buying for a typical first-time buyer.

Also, how do the condos built today compare to those of the 80s and 90s. Is it true they are even worse? Are there any good builders building decent, affordable condos right now?

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I’m very interested to see your scoop hit the fan. To me, it is looking like the tremors are getting bigger. Maybe we’re going to see a faster overall market capitulation than I’ve been expecting.

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CAULKING

If the building envelope has overdosed with Caulking in transition areas…ie where there are joints or 2 diffent materials meet …..RUN.

Overuse (or any use) of Caulking on the building envelope is one of the biggest and dumbest mistakes they ever allowed.

Even the best caulking will shrink , dry and loosen over time, leaving the area it attempts to seal exposed to water infiltraion ,and thus leading to rot.

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Please translate.

BTW: Property value are not frozen.
If they were, I choose 1955 prices in 2009.

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Repairs have also been done at the 26-storey Parkview Tower on 289 Drake St., another Concord Pacific development.

All the windows on the 14-year-old tower were replaced because they leaked, said Alan Cadwell, whose Langley-based company, The Condo Advocate, repaired Parkview Tower.

Cadwell’s company specializes in restoration management for leaky condos in B.C.

“With one good push, the window wall system, in theory, could be kicked out and could be travelling to the floor,” Cadwell said of the condition of the windows.

The cost of the repairs for Parkview Tower amounted to more than $8 million, he said.

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http://seekingalpha.com/articl.....urce=yahoo

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