Vancouver Condo Info

It’s Friday!  Here are a few recent news stories to kick off the open topic weekend discussion:

-House prices to go down for a decade?
-Experts say first-timers needed in housing market
-Real estate boom over.. Ya think?
-BC leads way in rising unemployment
-Commercial Property outlook bleak
-BC bleeding ‘good paying jobs’
-Making bad times good
-Big deficits in US budget
-US House prices drop at record rate

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

The Ritz Carlton work stoppage we reported on last October has been confirmed as a complete project cancelation.  The developer is blaming the ‘global recession:

The half-billion-dollar Ritz-Carlton hotel-condo project in downtown Vancouver is officially dead — a victim of the global recession.

Buyers who purchased luxury condos in the 60-storey tower that was supposed to be built at 1155 West Georgia are getting a letter this week telling them the project has been cancelled.

The letter from lawyers representing developer Holborn Group states that “worldwide economic turmoil” has had a significant negative impact on the sale of units in the project, as it has with most other Metro Vancouver developments.

“As a result, sales have not met the developer’s expectations,” the letter states. ” … We hereby give you notice that the vendor cancels and terminates the contract due to the fact that the vendor has not entered into binding contracts of purchase and sale for at least 75 strata lots in the development.

“As a result of this termination, the contract is now at an end.”

Full article in the Sun.

photo-illustration by reader moldcity.

It’s the end of the week and that means it’s time for the news roundup and open-topic discussion.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-Canada slips on oils slide
-Leading index slips most since 1982
-BC Economy: The worst is yet to come
-CMHC predicts 2009 house prices to fall in BC
-Canadian debt loads in ‘danger zone’
-Middle class squeezed in good times, what happens in recession?
-Almost 5 million in US getting jobless benefits
-What you can get for $1 million
-Americas ports clogged with foreign cars

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and thoughts here and have an excellent weekend!

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that the City of Vancouver is expected to buy out Fortress Investment Groups financing of the $1 billion Olympic Village:

Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem is meeting with council Wednesday morning to tell them arrangements have been made to assume the $750 million loan Fortress made to Millennium Developments.

In its place, the city is expected to sign a financing deal with a consortium of Canadian financial institutions.

In October Fortress stopped advancing money to Millennium for its monthy construction draws after it claimed the developer was “out of balance” on its loan requirements. That forced the city to borrow $100 million from itself to pay the monthly draws and provoked the council into asking the provincial government for special legislation allowing it to borrow an unlimited amount of money in order to consider removing Fortress as the lender.

I was doing my normal clean up of spam and vandalism in the Vancouver Condo Info Wiki when I discovered this gem – It looks like Jesse and John Harvey have been hard at work creating a useful list of things to consider when buying a condo, particularly a new presale condo.

The Condo Buying Tips wiki page has info on bait and switch scams, weasel clauses to look out for in a contract and advice from an inspector on what to check before you take possesion of a condo.

I’ve changed permissions in the Wiki to require a user account to make changes to help cut down on garbage.  Anyone can sign up for a wiki account on this page.

A big thank you to everyone who has added content to the wiki to help make it a useful community resource!

We’re going to try something new for this post; an antidote to the anarchy in the Friday Free-for-all thread.  This is a round up of a few of the higher rated comments from the Friday free-for-all post, but this thread will be moderated.  Off topic comments, trolls , insults and pissing contests will be removed from this thread.  If you want freedom of speech, the previous open topic thread is still open and you can post there.   Ok?  Here goes:

Comment by Declan regarding this article in the Tyee.  Currently rated +54

That really was a bizarre article on the Tyee. People have said some strange things about Vancouver real estate over the last few years, but saying that supply and demand doesn’t apply to this market really takes the cake.

Comment by Vansanity regarding this article in the Sun. Currently rated +48

I don’t think I will ever grasp the defensiveness that some people exhibit against the idea of lower home prices. Reading that Sun article and then reading the comments beneath it… you’d think real estate was a religion and the real estate bulls were religious fanatics. At least the equivalent of it. It’s truly disturbing to me.

Comment by Fools Uncle on Craigslist presales listings.  Currently rated +24

My nephew got caught up in a pre sale hype and purchased a condo in October 2007, it will complete in late 2009.There is still a sale’s centre and amazingly more than a few sales lately, proving Barnum’s fool theory. What I find ironic is that when he post’s an ad on Craigslist , offering his 15% deposit in an attempt to assign, it is flagged as inappropriate and removed. He does not mention the project or the developer, but obviously the real estate board or developers monitor these sites and flag anything competing with their product for removal. How low can they get in their desperation?

Please keep your comments focused on these topics for this thread.

It’s the end of the work-week. You made it!  Lets do our news round-up, here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-Vancouver new home prices fall again
-BC Poll 2009: Majority say it’s a good time to buy
-US Poll 2007: Majority say it’s a good time to buy
-Canada 2009: Numbers exaggerate bad news. Good time to buy?
-US 2006: Numbers exaggerate bad news. Good time to buy?
-Paul goes, but the stats will carry on.
-Is Vancouver beating Toronto in the race to the bottom?
-Campbell pulls a fast one on homeowners
-Bizarre housing myths article at the Tyee
-UK: Market sours for condo kings
-Intel Czar: Economy top threat to USA
-Laid off foreigners flee collapsing Dubai economy
-Global trade collapse slams Canada

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Local Realtor Paul Boenische has been providing daily statistics for the lower mainland market since the end of 2007. In 2008 he won the Georgia Straights reader choice award for “Best Realtor”.  Many of you have read his blog and seen his comments on other sites (like this one) under the name PaulB, so it is sad to see that he is leaving Vancouver for the improved quality of life in PEI.

We initially were interested in Charlottetown because we have some family there, and after researching it and visiting PEI, the vastly improved quality of life is what convinced us. Sandra and I want to have the time to be very involved in the lives of our children, and PEI is affordable as well as being beautiful.

I will miss the opportunity to work with many of you. I always got a kick out of meeting the person behind the avatar. However, I look forward to selling real estate in a market where I can more easily see value for the dollar. Selling first-time home buyers into a 200k house will feel good compared to the recent speculative mania that has infested BC real estate. And when you toss in beautiful beaches and the best golf in Canada it all made a tough decision a little easier.

You can read the rest of his farewell message on his blog.

I skipped town during the ‘Best of Vancouver’ awards party, so I never got to meet you Paul.  Best of luck with your move, I hope that you will keep us updated on how you and your family are enjoying your new home.

From the CMHC website today, January Housing Starts Decline.  While the seasonally adjusted urban rate declined 15.6%, it is BC at 29.1% and The Prairies at 30.3% that are driving the national stats down:

The seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of housing starts declined to 153,500 units in January from 172,200 units in December of 2008, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

“To a certain extent, the decline in housing starts coincides with recent developments in the existing home market. Reduced sales and increased listings in the existing home market have led to reduced spillover demand in the new home market,” said Bob Dugan, Chief Economist.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts decreased 15.6 per cent to 126,700 units in January. Urban multiple starts decreased 12.2 per cent to 76,700 units, while urban single starts fell 20.2 per cent to 50,000 units in January.

January’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts moderated in all of Canada’s five regions. Urban starts declined 8.6 per cent in Atlantic Canada, 1.4 per cent in Quebec, 14.6 per cent in Ontario, 30.3 per cent in the Prairies, and 29.1 per cent in British Columbia.

-YTWNboomerang

It’s Friday!  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

-Helmut Pastrick predicts BC will lose 42,000 jobs in 2009
-BC loses 35,000 jobs in January
-Canada facing worst economic crisis since 1970s
-Credit crunch tests the mettle of P3s
-Ontario RE/Max offices investigated
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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 into your comment will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Linking to more than one external link within a single comment may cause your submission to get held up in the spam filter.