Comments on: Monday Misc: Starts, Polls, Taxes & More!

By: Ulsterman

Ulsterman — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:01:17 +0000

I agree with most here - who cares how many museums, art galleries or outdoor patios there are if you have no chance of buying a single family home even in a burb like Burnaby. When you eventually have a family it's a bit of space and a garden for your kids to play in that really start to impact your quality of life. The weightings on EIU's rankings are out of whack.

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By: No Longer Looking

No Longer Looking — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:40:43 +0000

Someone even wrote a song about how ugly Vancouver is: http://tinyurl.com/nqsf5y

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By: No Longer Looking

No Longer Looking — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:34:30 +0000

Patriotz, Its not just the monster houses. I find that Vancouver houses are either too plain or too busy. We can't seem to get it just right. Its like Vancouver has no sense of style.

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By: patriotz

patriotz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:20:27 +0000

DualCitizenship: I lived in both Seattle and Vancouver, and frankly, Seattle’s an ugly city. Have you taken a drive down Kingsway lately? As for residential areas, Seattle wins hands down. No infestations of ugly monster houses. And needless to say way more affordable too. I will concede that downtown Vancouver looks better, but BFD.

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By: dboy

dboy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:23:45 +0000

K-Money: Where are your figures - i'd like to see them.

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By: Just_Spiffy

Just_Spiffy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:21:16 +0000

"DualCitizenship Says: June 10th, 2009 at 11:34 am I lived in both Seattle and Vancouver, and frankly, Seattle’s an ugly city." Ahhh but what about West Seattle or Waterfront Kirkland or Mercer Island or Bellevue. All gorgeous IMO.

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By: No Longer Looking

No Longer Looking — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:45:31 +0000

I asked my landlord why he's spending so much time working on his rental properties. His other business (in financial services) is slow. So slow he's taking the summer off. Me, I get new bushes, pretty flowers and a repaired walkway. As for my rent, no increase this year after a whole 1% increase last year.

Problem is my great deal may not seem so great next year. At some point, I'll start negotiating or just find an even better deal. Thank you, all you real estate fanatics, for going into crushing debt so I can continue to have affordable rent.

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By: No Longer Looking

No Longer Looking — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:56:46 +0000

The Vancouver vacancy seems to have at least tripled what it was only a few months ago, and now stands at 1.9%. As others have mentioned previously, the CHMC figures are only for rental buildings (mainly older, purpose-built), and don't reflect individually rented condos and basement suites. The real rate is much higher, but what's interesting here is the trend.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2…

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By: DualCitizenship

DualCitizenship — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:34:01 +0000

I lived in both Seattle and Vancouver, and frankly, Seattle's an ugly city.

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By: rubberduckie

rubberduckie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:31:07 +0000

I think one factor in rent vs. own is the individual's taxation rate. A person might prefer to own their home and make small % tax-free in the form of rental savings, versus renting a place and making a larger % off their investment bucks, but losing a chunk of it at their marginal income tax rate. We are not all the same. High-income earners get more benefit from owning the same property as low-income earners would get. If both put their rental savings into RRSPs, the high-income earner will get a larger tax refund.

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