Now might be a great time to buy real estate, no one can say with certainty.

There is no credible scenario – whether inflationary, deflationary, or price stability, apart from selling to a greater fool – where buying Vancouver RE will give competitive returns to an investor.

You have the evidence of the world's biggest economy the other side of Zero Avenue. What more could anyone want?

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Patriotz what about the term risk when used in context of risk/reward. I think Angryslav was right also because that was his context.

That was my context. The long-term total return of an asset class is positively correlated to its risk, because the more uncertain the returns, the more return rational investors will want.

Vancouver RE is no more risky today than it ever was. It's just ridiculously overpriced. That's something else entirely.

If anyone thinks I'm being pedantic, would you say it's "risky" to jump out of an airplane without a parachute? No, it's suicidal. Just like buying Vancouver RE at today's prices is financial suicide. Risk means undertaking an action with an uncertain outcome, not one with a virtual certainty of a negative outcome.

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Risk also refers to 'capital risk', not just an interuption of earnings. Capital risk can account for any potential exposure to loss from currency fluctuation, opportunity cost and direct loss through malfeasance etc etc.

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The man who led an earlier fight against Vancouver's leaky condos has a warning for owners of recently built condos: Just because it was built after the year 2000, doesn't mean it's free of the problem. James Balderson with the Coalition of Leaky Condo Owners says they've started to get reports from homeowners in condos built after 2000.

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Risk means different things to different people in different contexts. No one likes a pedant.

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http://www.bnn.ca/news/10115.html

"But the risk posed by household balance sheets has grown, the Bank of Canada. The level of debt to income reached a record in the fourth quarter as real net worth dropped 6.7 percent from the same period a year ago, the central bank said.

While stressing that the possibility of a mass bankruptcy is remote, the ability of Canadians to repay their bank loans has replaced frozen credit markets as the main fear factor among policy makers, the report said.

"There has been a further deterioration in the financial position of the Canadian household sector as a result of the continued turmoil in financial markets, the deepening global recession, and worsening labour market conditions," the report said. "Nonetheless, in aggregate, the financial situation of Canadian households remains reasonably healthy."

Canadians' household debt is about 140 percent of disposable income, compared with about 150 percent in Britain and almost 170 percent in the United States. The level is about 90 percent among the countries that use the euro."

Yet, the cost to borrow remains… cheap.

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