Friday Free-for-all!
End of the week, you know the drill.. Lets round up some recent economic and real estate news to kick off the open topic weekend discussion:
-Condo owners sue developer and city of Kelowna
-Burnaby is the “Best run city in Canada!”
-Commercial real estate – the other bubble
-Get ready for basement suites in the sky!
-The recession is dead! Long live the recession!
-When can you ask for your pay cut back?
-Record low interest rates to tempt unsure consumers
-Vancouver sees largest drop in hotel rates for 2nd month
-US: which cities will, and wont, recover fastest
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
July 28th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Re: #69
That is an interesting website. I didn't sign up, but clicked on "48 hr delayed search". I didn't find the property in their search page, but I found the final selling price by using Google and it led me to the agent's site.
The final price was approx $30K below asking price for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath in a building that's 30+ yrs old. Still way to much in my opinion, as that particular suite has heavy traffic and noise from a nearby ventilation fan… plus the strata fees! I am thinking someone bought that place as an "investment" and will probably rent it out. About 2 or 3 yrs from now real estate prices will definitely be lower when a magnitude 9 earthquake strikes the lower mainland and Vancouver slides into the sea and disappears from the map.
July 28th, 2009 at 12:36 am
In today's G&M:
The laneway house: A novel solution to Vancouver's real-estate crunch
Note bogus headline. Is there a RE "crunch" in Vancouver? Of course not. Rents are falling.
Read the article and you will find that cash-strapped homeowners are planning to build laneway houses to recharge their finances. Running out of land? Nope. Pent-up supply? Yep.
Build baby build.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
RE: American tourism
Another reason tourists might not be coming to Vancouver is it is BORING. If you aren't an outdoors person, and most people aren't, there's virtually nothing to do in this city except fight guidos on Granville Street. Word is getting out that Vancouver truly is NoFunCity.
Did you think putting every dollar into building condos was going to build a vibrant metropolis? Zero imagination in this city and zero interest in culture.
Luckily, I love the outdoors so it's all good for me
Back to painting!
July 27th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Voting down my posts? You know what? I noticed that any post here that aren't bearish gets attacked right away. Most of you who are bearish probably don't own a house or hope to buy a house. Keep on dreaming because the stock markets are going up and so are housing prices.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
re: 69, I registered, filled the form, searched, but couldn't find the the sold prices. Where is "neighbourhood watch"?
July 27th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
JoeX
quick, go to the livelistings.ca, register, click on neighbourhood watch, fill in the data, and wait for the sold listings response.
If the condo was sold within the last month, you have very good chances to see the sold price.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Wasn't the tourism industry touted as BC's #1 driver not long ago?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20090727/ap_tr_…
The Cruise Ship industry will virtually die after the scheduled pull out of four major providers in 2010. Whats left?
There was a time when 25% of downtown condos were being bought by American day trippers. That was when the CDN dollar was 60% lower. Who's supporting the fantasy today? It's not US citizens that for sure with visits at a 37 year low. The portfolios of Americas rich have been sliced down 40%. Unemployment, crashing real estate values and a stock market refusing to turn doesn't even suggest that tourism or rich internationals are coming back to Vancouver anytime soon.
If revenues from tourism drop as precipitously as they have from resources and labour then this towns inside a big can of whup ass thats getting ready to sour. Good luck to the deniers, cheerleaders and specuvestors who had hoped for a turnaround on the presale condo glut. Bwahahahahahahaha!!
July 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I noticed an apartment/condo sold recently in the area where I currently rent. I am curious how much the closing price was? How do I look that up? Thanks.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Right down to the phony rebranding, the story of San Diego mirrors Vancouvers tenuous hold on the dream.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-condobust27…
The city of SD had also created a catchy name, chopped living areas down to coffin sizes, everyone denied it couldn't happen. Ya right!
July 27th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Green Shoots? Reality says otherwise.
http://www.aar.org/Home/AAR2/NewsAndEvents/~/medi…
Although the cheerleaders want to get you spending again, the big picture does not indicate any upturn in the economy. The government fuckwits are standing back, spinning ' confidence' stories through the media whores, wringing their hands and hoping for the best. But, if port trade and rail trade continue to ofail, then that means your job is also at risk. Straight line logic is a bitch.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Don't be a sucker bearman, you've got to take risks to get ahead, but Real estate makes you piddlyshit money. Buy lotto tickets dude! MAKE MILLIONS!!!
July 27th, 2009 at 10:09 am
All i know is houses are expensive, i would be scared to buy one. I'm glad i can hide unpopular commments, sometimes those comments make me feel scared.
July 26th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Thanks SFMike:
“Housing delivered a solid but unimpressive annualized return of 8.6%.”
If you own a principle residence whole of that gain is yours
Um, you have to sell your principal residence to realize that gain. Unless and until you do, the house has only returned the rental value to you during the time you have owned it. And what would you do if you sold? Rent? Buy in Trail?
As I have said before, "net worth" based on inflated house prices is meaningless, because it is impossible for everyone to sell, not to mention people don't want to sell their principal residences anyway.
You can only assume that your house will return you the rental value going forward, because there is no assurance that you can sell the house for any given price at any time in the future. So what kind of return are we looking at given today's sale prices?
July 26th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
57 – nothing wrong with a brand new KIA. Lot's of folks would be happy to drive one.
July 26th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Everyone, remember to vote down Idiotboy's posts to -10, so they can be filtered out. That's regardless of what name he is using.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
I realize renting is for losers but i am terrified of losing my life savings by investing in r.e. or stocks. I live life on the defensive. Bears live scared.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
guys
supra is a troll remember.
a boring repetitve one at that
July 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
"So after 20 years in Canada earning a decent engineering salary I can drive a brand new KIA??? Sadly I cannot afford anything better as I don’t deal drugs, have no pornographic website and don’t speculate with real estate"
I'm a little sad that this comment (and the other reply) got votted up. I was thinking that the spirit of this blog was that of financial sanity. If I'm wrong about this then by all means vote this thing down. Supraboy is right (*sigh*) in that old fationed saving won't get you very far. That doesn't mean take on debt as his hidden agenda urges you to do but take on smart debt. ei learn to properly price houses for your purchase and if you have spare savings invest, such that investment income will be yeilded. This is different from capital appreciation which is kind of casino investing. However if you stick to investments that make sense capital appreciation will follow.
So in regards to vancouver points in the past it would have made sense. Right now a lot of landloards think they are "owners" but they themselves are just renting a pile of money from the bank at a loss (except the dream of increasing prices).
Now if you take your time to do these things and educate yourself you'll find that your not owned by the bank or your employer and can retire early without a pention managed by some third party.
If you would like there are other blogs that focus on this as an example such as million dollar journey.
Of all thins though rp has the best advice. Life isn't about how much money you have under the pillow so don't be so frugal that you don't enjoy things.
Best to all
July 26th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
If any president confirm that news he will be paying over $36,0000,0000,00000,00000, in privacy lawsuit.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Get your facts straight please.
"Rumours that Oprah Winfrey has bought a penthouse suite at the Shangri-La tower on Georgia Street are not true, according to the president of a real estate company that’s selling units at the condo.
Tracie McTavish, president of Rennie Marketing Systems, told Metro News yesterday that he’s heard the rumour before. “I’m pretty connected after 30 years in real estate,” he said. “I can confirm this is not true.”
http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/1…
July 26th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I am sure Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Moss, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslett, Sienna Miller, etc own a penthouse in downtown,All of them are swiming naked in 80 feet swiming pool,You fools,Even Oprah bought a penthouse in Downtown Vancouver that worth $18 millions.
"Housing delivered a solid but unimpressive annualized return of 8.6%."
If you own a principle residence whole of that gain is yours,the time you have spend in your house lowering down your payments.Imagine if tenent has invested in s&p he will lose more than 35% of the gain in taxes and if he lose his enire investment owner still own the house but tenent can't even pay his rents.Finally average price in downtown condo is $450k any buyers will get appreciation at 8.6% or$38,000.S&P return on $10,000-50,000 13.5% or $6,750 and if you had borrow that principle from the bank all your money goes to hell while owners will be swiming naked even in a downturn he is not paying rents like tenant.Hey girlbear i hope you own some stock from rim,Good Luck.
July 26th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
"San Fran is a dump" – now I have heard it all.
Yeah, proximity to Napa and Sonoma, Tahoe, incredible coastline, groovy culture, and gorgeous historical buildings (read not all glass towers),… those all suck.
LOL.
Come on Supraboy, even you can't think these incredible world cities are "dumps".
And I doubt anyone on this forum is planning on "bitterly" hoarding their money in cash for their lifetimes. The point which is being made here is that NOW may not be the best time to put your money in Vancouver real estate. One only has to look at any of the standard ratios – price to income, price to rent, etc. to come to this conviction.
Please stop insulting other great cities (many of which I like very much) in an attempt to make your point. Oh and you are not allowed to insult people from other places either ("If you intend to meet British girls there, I can tell you that they’ve got ugly teeth and bad breath."). It weakens your argument. Trust me on that.
As an aside, I was in SF on business with a very very wealthy Chinese client about a year ago. His first time to the City. He liked it very much. In fact he liked it so much he moved his family from West Van to the Bay Area about 6 months ago. I guess some of those wealthy Chinese that are supposed to support our market might not think other places are dumps…
July 26th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
hey Girlbear, I'm not saying housing is the only method of investing. Investing beats saving the old fashion way. In the end, old farts save up and live a bitter life.
47, Boom Bust: I got news for you, Manhattan is a dump, they don't have the mountains or something like whistler. Same goes for San Fran.
July 26th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Oh and Supraboy – I am sure Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kate Moss, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslett, Sienna Miller, etc.. would be be crushed to hear you think they are so unattractive!
You are a fool.
Why do so many of the Bull comments always get so weirdly personal and mean?
Sigh.