Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

http://tinyurl.com/nqsf5y

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

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.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

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.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Where are your figures – i’d like to see them.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

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.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

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.

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/briti.....-rate.html

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

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.

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Martin Wirick has been sentenced to seven years of jail time after pleading guilty to an almost $40 million mortgage fraud, involving 107 real estate clients.”

Current score: 2 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Amenities mean nothing if you cannot afford them. The sad fact is that for middle-class families, Vancouver is one of the least livable cities in Canada. It’s only attractive for singles with good incomes or upper-income families.”

This was essentially my point yesterday. Studies like this are leaning towards a certain demographic or income level. Don’t get me wrong, I love Vancouver, and have lived in 6 different cities along the way, but it definitely is NOT an affordable place for most people, and that factor alone should be #1 when it comes to top places to live IMO.

Example: someone earning $35-$40k a year in Vancouver can’t even afford to buy real estate unless they have a huge down payment, but earn the same income in Montreal, and you can live quite well. (I’ve lived there twice on much less than that).

Current score: 7 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Why would a company relocate an executive to Vancouver? To be closer to the action? How many corporate executives concentrating on mountains and trees are there?

Current score: 3 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

OTTAWA — New home prices fell more than expected in April, led by declines in major centres in Western Canada

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1681422

OTTAWA — Canada posted an unexpected trade deficit of $179-million in April as prices and volumes both fell, Statistics Canada said Wednesday, as the economic downturn cut into demand.

Economists had expected a trade surplus of around $1-billion during the month.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1681399

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

#41 P, excellent point, Coming to Slime-couver is a big fat bonus if you are being paid in Euro’s, Pounds, or US Dollar denominiated currency like PRC Yuan or HK dlollars. Canada is priced like a third world country for those executives who can relocate here and live cheap cheap cheap!

Imagine coming over from Europe and finding everything costs half price. Wonderful. Canadas wages, standard of living and currency are a standing joke world wide. We live in national poverty while ‘tourists’ get a marginally upgraded Mexican experiance. We should be so proud of ourselves.

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

LOL that’s a good one. More like expense-account business executive wannabes.

I’m wringing my hands waiting for all those corporate head offices to move to Vancouver after reading that EIU report.

Current score: 7 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

I’m not sure if some of you were actually suggesting that anyone in BC (VANOC included) actually has the power to get the Economist to rank Vancouver as #1, but if so that is silly.

Yes, we all know that media outlets have biases, but you have to figure out a reasonable bias and work from there rather than concocting a random paranoid response.

I wouldn’t rank Vancouver as #1 myself. I would rank Paris higher than Vancouver. Yet I just met some recent transplants from Paris who find that Vancouver is a much better climate for opening a new small business (in their particular field).

Whatever, it doesn’t change the fact that house prices are out of line with rent and developers have corrupted local government and our city planing is short-term at best.

Current score: 7 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Sure it is, for the EIU’s target audience – expense-account business executives. That’s the whole point – their evaluation of amenities is without regard to affordability. If I were making a couple hundred grand and living in West Van I’d be loving it too.

Amenities mean nothing if you cannot afford them. The sad fact is that for middle-class families, Vancouver is one of the least livable cities in Canada. It’s only attractive for singles with good incomes or upper-income families.

Current score: 25 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Current score: 11 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

So… speaking to a large single-family home developer today, I was told they’ve seen a drop off in traffic in the last two weeks.

On another note, just talking to people around the office today about the rise in rates at TD, several people looked freaked out who are looking to re-finance or sell their current place for something else.

Although these observations are anecdotal, I’d certainly say that a weakening of demand combined with rising rates could have some interesting results over the coming months.

Current score: 13 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Current score: 1 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

#36, Exactly how the magazine buisness works. You get the gold star. I mentioned in an earlier string how dummied up ‘ research services’,'think tanks’ and ‘policy groups’ often consist of two guys in a basement selling stories to publishers. Nobody fact-checks this crap 99.9999% of time. it’s freaking amazing how many people think that whatever they read in the paper must be gospel. It’s editors cobbling stories together.

Sucker born every minute said Barnum.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Ha ha. UK elected 2 politicians in who say no more immigrants and muslim in their country. EIU’s poll will steer the unwanted hopefully to Australia and Canada where they are welcome.

BBY, this sort of studies and awards are biased and manipulative. My friend, a journalist, writes good review for restaurants in return for vouchers, dinner for 10, and even cash. Once she was flown first class to another city plus deluxe hotel accommodation, and generous expense allowances, to write on the opening ceremony of an entertainment complex. What do you expect her to write, that the new complex was a cheap 3rd rate entertainment joke?

Current score: 5 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Current score: 2 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

Current score: 3 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)