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Friday Free for All!

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It’s the end of the work week again and that means it’s time to do our end of the week news roundup / open topic discussion.  Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

–UBC condo buyer gets out of contract
–Bank of Canada warns on loonies rise
–Gen X kicking back at the cottage
–Personal bankruptcies up 36%
–US House prices tracking more adverse scenario
–US jobless rolls drop first time in 20 weeks
–7 Factors that led to economic crisis
–Geitner can’t sell house, decides to rent it out instead.

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

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realpaul

dboy: #72 D, so not being a pinhead denier with my head up my ass and 'outing' the cheerleaders is grounds for a torch bearing mob in your view? Thats so Douche-couver. Sorry Dude, but I don't hide from the facts. I calls 'em like I see's 'em and from the majority of support the truth as I 'see's' it gets on these boards by people who are tired of the BS there are plenty more spankings to come. The proof is on the upticks of support and down on denial. Any place that is so needy for recognition that it makes up it's own is sooooooo deserving of a kick in the ass. Apparently there are some ( like maybe three) deniers who just get outraged when they are faced with the truth, too bad. I'm happy that I've… Read more »

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dboy

realpaul:

We get it you don't like Vancouver. When are you leaving?

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T-1000

No Longer Looking Says: June 8th, 2009 at 11:32 am "jesse – two to three years ago, I was reading some of those American bubble blogs religiously. So that’s probably why the term was rattling around in the back of my brain I was on a rare trip downtown yesterday. Even on the toniest parts of Robson Street, you will find empty storefronts now with “for lease” signs in the window. Is anyone here in that biz? I’d love to hear some stores." Head lease rates on prime Robson are $170-200/sq ft triple net. You'd have to be doing $15,400-17,000/month on a small 1,000 sq ft store just to cover the rent – excluding "little" things like utilities, inventory, wages, marketing, etc. Given how quickly rents are falling in NYC (incl 5th Ave), Robson may be the most expensive street… Read more »

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realpaul

oneangryslav: #69 OAS, I feel so sorry for your in laws having nothing in their lives except to have their kids play on the most obviously shit stained beach in Denial-couver. The sludge from the freshly dumped feces left over from the receding tide is half a foot thick. I really hope that none of them are subjected to a life threatening case of E-Coli. The kids in Harare play in sewage littered public areas too. Kum By Ya. The police also beat people to death without sanction there, just like Van-Shithole. I guess we have a lot in common with Zimbabwe, is that the plan? The question the Economist study posed was "is your immediate lifestyle in jeopardy?". The twisted local media interprets this as "we're number one'. What yellow bullshit! All lower case for your reading pleasure. Actually,… Read more »

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oneangryslav

No Longer Looking: I'm one of those who has a firm grasp on reality and where Vancouver stacks up amongst the cities of the world. I've often said that it's not (even close to being) New York, but not many cities are. There are many things to do here; you just have to search a little harder than in other places. For a metropolitan area of 2.5 million, there aren't many cities in the world that can compare. Does Vancouver have its problems? Of course it does. But all other cities have their own problems. As for your claim that the beaches of Spanish Banks/Point Grey are beyond the reach of most suburbanites, I disagree. My sister and brother-in-law, and their three kids, survive on the income of one wage earner, and they make the trek in from Coquitlam to… Read more »

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Moody Blues

jesse, your link with the photos of the drywall and copper is extremely helpful. as i mentioned, i don't see any issues in our suite, but my three year-old was playing with the neighbor's three year-old in their suite after dinner and he apparently came home with a nosebleed. (kid has never had a nosebleed in his life.) but he's at that age now where he picks his nose so who knows. i don't want to over-react and be paranoid, on the other hand…

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Moody Blues

Thanks M,for your reply. I have checked outlets and I don't see anything unusual in our suite, although there is a little bit of green on the copper of our hot water heater.

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No Longer Looking

The weather lately has made me warm up to Vancouver a bit. But a few weeks of rain will undo it again.

This city is boring with too few good jobs, too much hype and too many drug-addicted, mentally-ill poor.

I glimpsed the good life when I visited Robson St. and the beaches of Point Grey yesterday. Nice, but that's not the reality for the wage slaves out in the suburbs with their crushing mortgages. That's the way it is for most people here.

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realpaul

oneangryslav: #63, I said nothing about Harare being in Chad. I've been into Chad through Libya, its an isolated mindless cultureless featureless government controlled insensitive stinking shithole like Vancshithole. By the way, they also say they're number ONE, and there is raw sewage everywhere, just like Vancshitholecouver. They also have a lot of people who are destitute sleeping outside and getting screwed by a population that doesn't give a shit. The media there also plays propaganda about the greatness of the government all day long. And just like the BC Liberals the Chadian government has made new sweeping legislation to control the private water supply. The one thing that Chad has going for it is the people that have taken up arms to get some justice, unlike the mindless brainwashed screw ups who can't get their heads out of their… Read more »

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read on

^^ agreed, Van is a nice place. I choose to live there, most of the year.

however, the "study"'s comment about "petty crime" was funny – a spree of gangland shootings is "petty crime", is it?

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oneangryslav

realpaul: realpaul, your tireless bashing of Vancouver was annoying before, but when you combine it with your tendentious (mis)reading of everything, well you start coming off as ignorant as our resident real estate bulls. First off, Harare is not in Chad (though that's a minor point). More importantly, if you had read the article without the pre-existing sense of rage with which you approach the reading of any article/commentary about Vancouver that is positive, you would have learned that the "yokels" who paid for this study, and all previous iterations of it, are from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Why is it so hard for you to believe that Vancouver would do so well on a composite index of these five factors: health-care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure? The only one I would quibble with would be culture (but… Read more »

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jesse

Mold city: "I replaced the outlets in my 60 year old house recently and the wire was basically black."

Copper can be tarnished due to exposure to gaseous reactants. It will do this naturally even at low levels of exposure so blackened copper wire in a 60 year old install is not uncommon and not necessarily indicative of a major contamination problem.

When copper turns black in newer installs, that can indicate high concentrations of reactive gases including sulphur-based ones that are known to be the result of outgassing from contaminated drywall.

See here for more information.

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Mold city

M-: Can you explain what the darkened copper means? I replaced the outlets in my 60 year old house recently and the wire was basically black.

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M-

Moody Blues: On the toxic drywall issue, first try pulling the cover off a few light switches, and have a look at the condition of any bare wire. It should be a nice clean copper colour– a bit darker than a freshly-cleaned penny, but a nice even clean colour. If there are patchy dark bits, if it's going black, if it's going green, those are bad signs– I live in a 30-year-old house and the wires behind the panels look the same as a year-old house. Caution: DON'T ELECTROCUTE YOURSELF! Don't poke screwdrivers into the wires, and be careful what you touch once the cover plate is off. Make sure to replace the cover plate when you're done. Best places to look: -Light switches on an outside wall, not a wall separating one room from another room. -Light switches in… Read more »

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realpaul

Experts say that 'green shoots' may be just a set up for a 'double dip'. The suckers are getting lined up for the slaughter according to recent studies.

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/GAM.20…

This 'chicken in every pot' and good times are just around the corner' happy talk from the government is just a sales pitch. The Fed is 'jawboning' the market, it ain't working. The fundamentals are still eroding.

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arbitrage

re: "educated" – University is the new high school. At least that seems to be the trend in america with their "party schools". Or maybe i'm just getting old.

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realpaul

No Longer Looking:

#56 NLL, 'empty storefronts on tony Robson strasse' say it ain't so. Isn't Vanwhitewash the 'easy place'? The study which the Van Sun has hectored this Am is ' is your immediate lifestyle in jeopardy'? WTF does that mean? Comparing Vancouver to Harare and saying vancouver is #1. Because it's not Harare? Hey, I've got some news for the yokels that paid for this 'study'. There are places on this planet that make Harare look like a freaking paradise. Why weren't they on the list. Where is Mogadishu in all this. Maybe if we look at conditions in the Swat Valley Vancouver can be # plus 13 of some silly crap. What, compared to a disease ridden shithole in Chad Vancouver is #1. This is really just stupid journalism. We're talking desperation.

http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouver+world+easie…

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No Longer Looking

jesse – two to three years ago, I was reading some of those American bubble blogs religiously. So that's probably why the term was rattling around in the back of my brain 😛

I was on a rare trip downtown yesterday. Even on the toniest parts of Robson Street, you will find empty storefronts now with "for lease" signs in the window. Is anyone here in that biz? I'd love to hear some stores. 🙂

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VanBanker

"No Longer Looking Says:

June 7th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

I’ve talked to a few people now who are looking again or at least thinking about looking again. They are dissatisfied with their current rental because its too expensive or is substandard housing (and substandard landlords). So they are looking a shiny new condos and only thinking howmuchamonth.

This is too bad because apparently they are not aware but they the rental market hasn’t been so good in years. I guess this is due to the hype about “low vacancy rates”."

This strain of thinking is epidemic in Vancouver.

The rental market is looking better right now then at any time since I got back here in late 2005, and it's only going to get better as more units are completed and the rental supply continues to swell.

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patriotz

Dagwood:

However elusive any recovery might be, it’s already being coined as the “jobless recovery”….(just googled it)

That also happened in the 80's. The recession ended in late 1982 but BC unemployment remained in double digits until 1987. That's also the year that the RE market first started to show a significant recovery.

Before you dump too much on the economists, remember that the term "recession" simply means a contracting economy. When the economy starts growing again, however slowly, the recession is over. That has nothing to do with employment or house prices, both of which may keep falling, and both of which typically take years to recover. As they will again this time.

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Bilbo Bloggins

"Howmuchamonth" reminds me of how morons get suckered at the dealership into leasing a car they can't afford.

Leasing is an easy way to hide true costs of an overpriced vehicle.

Bears a lot of similarities to the current RE market, doesn't it?

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jesse

No Longer Looking:"howmuchamonth"

"Joe Howmuchamonth" is the slang used by US mortgage brokers to describe people who only care about their monthly payments. It's scary to see Howmuchamonths prevalent in Vancouver. I know a few and they are university educated. How basic finance theory eludes even the most "educated" is fascinating.

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realpaul

I was driving around Richmond today and was struck by the number of new 'for sale' signs there are now after a bit of a lull. It's like a sudden flurry to list has hit. This confirms my suspicions that a lot of worried sellers were holding off when the news was getting out. It's just an eye est, but I'd say there are more than 100% more listings in the past two weeks since I was last out and about. I also noticed that only the low price type units have 'sold' signs.

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No Longer Looking

I've talked to a few people now who are looking again or at least thinking about looking again. They are dissatisfied with their current rental because its too expensive or is substandard housing (and substandard landlords). So they are looking a shiny new condos and only thinking howmuchamonth.

This is too bad because apparently they are not aware but they the rental market hasn't been so good in years. I guess this is due to the hype about "low vacancy rates".

So with these folks giving up for a life of mortgage bondage the rental market will get sweeter. I'm seriously considering moving next year, because the options might get irresistible. 🙂

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No Longer Looking

"We have more sales happening right now than we did last year.Oh really? yoy yoy yoy ok ok.mom mom mom ok ok. http://agentwill.com/weekly-stats/"

There is a bigger uptick in listings (some sellers finally waking up to their last chance?). For the first time in the last month, the sale/list has finally dropped out of the 80s to 78%.

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