Friday Free-for-all!
It’s time for our end of the week news round up! Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:
-RBC: Vancouver affordability improves, but “still exorbitant”
-Personal bankruptcies jump 13.5% in February
-Big MAC sale sells out the Beasley
-Woodwards crumbling or supposed to be like that?
-Intrawest eyes asset sale to pay down debt
-Auction tries to kick-start BC vacation property market
-Hawaii foreclosures soar 503% in March
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
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April 20th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Supraboy:
lol. That was on the topic post.
Get some sleep dude; tommorows another day.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
deathspiral:
So, yes there were lots of poor people at that time, but the society of the poor was functioning on a very differant paradigm. Being poor was cool, unlike today.
You are really making the same point as me, There were social networks, as well as institutions for the mentally ill, in the 60′s and 70′s that averted homelessness as we know it today. The few truly homeless really stood out back then.
As I have already noted, the social networks for Asians still exist, in a quite similar form really, which is the reason why you see so few homeless Asians today.
April 19th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Has this been reported on the news?
http://www.beyondrobson.com/ne.....crumbling/
This is regarding the concrete falling from the Woodwards development.
April 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
#61
Read it again, please.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
#59&60 speaking of dull, circular and repetative, I see you’ve both agreed to agree, and to say nothing.
April 19th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
#59
I totally Agree. Not only stale but utterly repetitive. It seems that most contributions are going in circles. Bears expecting the opposite than bulls but not much substance in the arguments.
May be a wider look at what is happening around the globe will bring to this forum a more balanced measure of things to come, which IMHO will affect out lives far beyond the RE realm.
Renting versus owning, being over or underwater, making or loosing money by playing the investment games and many other controversies may become a moot points if other basic necessities go unfulfilled.
Unfortunately that’s not a remote possibility anymore.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Wow, this blog has been a little stale as of late – no offense intended, guys.
But, unfortunately, with comments 57 and 58, I am sad to say it’s reached an all time low. Vote them down, down, down, I say.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Chinks OWN vancouver get that straight. They will be the new native people here.. Its happening in vancouver. Their homeland population is pass a billion and with mass unemployment there, they are heading this way to Vancouver bypassing all the other countries. It seems so strange as its SOO farr from their homeland
April 19th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
You guy ignored one important factor which supporting Van RE market for the yrs come;
Chinks’ purchasing power and their willingness to scarify their lives for a house.
Vancouver is the exemption because it has 55% Chink population whose immense wealth can support Van RE for at least 50 yrs.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
patriotz:
#46,Patriotz, having lived on the sidewalks of this fair city ( and many others) in the 1960′s I can attest that there were plenty of homeless and otherwise disenfranchised people around at that time. The entire society of poor at that time was a differant scene though and it didn’t seem that the streets were as hardened as they are today. There were always lots of crash pads around the city. Communes were a very big scene by the late 60′s and thousands of hippies and wannabe’s fled the city for the hinterland and islands. There was a curcuit of communes all over N. America where you could go if you were into the hithhiking culture, which many were. It was nothing to hithhike around the continent with the weather, and many did just that, me included. The US border was not an impediment at that time. I lived on a commune on Maui for awhile.
So, yes there were lots of poor people at that time, but the society of the poor was functioning on a very differant paradigm. Being poor was cool, unlike today.
Rent for a large house anywhere was under $200 dollars a month I remember and we’d have 15 to 30 people ‘living’ in some big pit at any one time. All these areas have become gentrified now and those ‘crash pad’ opportunities are no longer available. There were groups of hippies who offered ‘free’ space to crash for the travellers and temporily homeless. There were free clothes shops and free food storefronts.
Of, course drugs wre still recreational back then and hard core junkies were fewer and further between. There was no crack in the 60′s and cocaine was mythical.
We still had hospitals back then and mentally ill people didn’t have to fend for themselves. There were a few famous bag ladies along the downtown streets , but mass craziness wasn’t a big issue. Does anyone remember the “Waver Lady” of Granville street? She had a little sidekick who walked behind her and laughed at the old broads antice, what a pair. By the late 60′s the acid burn outs were starting to stick out like a sore thumb. One of them ‘Terry’ used to panhandle along Robson , he always had his face painted blue or green. Thats a cautionary tale for anyone not to stay too long at any party.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:31 am
JustAnotherBear:
#50, actually we do know whats in that black box. It’s called TARP money. Everyone seems to have convieniantly forgot that all the banks have been flushed up with billions upon billions of ‘stimulus’ cash. CITI is another example of sudden profitability that took the market by storm. It’s a joke to see the media get wrapped up in this when if you listen to a non MSM analyst they’ll tell you exactly whats going on. personally I think it’s all part and parcel of the governments larger campaign to sell ‘hope’, optimism’ and ‘confidence’, otherwise it’s all bullshit. I really hope they all give themselves a big bonus. LOL
April 19th, 2009 at 10:05 am
read on: I didn’t know anything in life was 100% guaranteed. What line of work are you in?
April 19th, 2009 at 2:36 am
“How safe is your job? Really, how safe is it? ”
100%, but I realise I’m one of the fortunate few who can say that.
April 19th, 2009 at 12:41 am
How safe is your job? Really, how safe is it?
April 19th, 2009 at 12:32 am
The price that people are willing to pay will decline as their income/employment/opportunity declines.
Was just at Daytona beach Fla., average price: $83 sq/ft.
I know Vancouver is not Florida, but $83 sq/ft compared to $400 – $1000 sq/ft? This is just not sustainable given the economic situation.