Friday Free-for-fall!

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  1. 100
  2. realpaul Says:

    @Boombust:

    #95 BB, this isn’t the only blog I haunt nor am I a stranger to old cathedrals. Travelling was the catalyst to starting my first business. There are few places I haven’t been and places I still lust after. Quite frankly I can’t get enough,it’s become like blood and oxygen ; I recommend it to everyone.

    For one thing access to a diversity of information opens your mind and really helps one cut through the bullshit streamed through the media to local populations due to geographic isolation. For another, its life affirming and fresh. I have a lot of fun travelling and it seems to make life have the appearance of being worth living. I keep in mind that this was the same thing Sitting Bull said when he was asked why he drank so much. Life is what you make it out to be.

    I form a lot of interests, associations and opinions while travelling. I am a fairly hardcore photographer and adventure travel addict. So please don’t restrict me to cathedrals when there are so many other things to get involved in. I did recently visit Bristol where I found some very interesting 11th century cathedrals, like RedCliff. Amazing to walk on the gravestones of people buried in the floor a thousand years ago. The original site was pre Christian Anglo Saxon. Leeds is also interesting and predates the conquest.

    Access to information and other peoples perspectives is important to understand the truth rather than the bias fed by a local media for propaganda and misguided nationalism purposes.

    When people are poor, frightened , ignorant and isolated the government has more effective control than they would over a population that is healthy, well educated and world savvy. People like me are considered dangerous by the government. People like me don’t take crap ; we know things, and aren’t afraid to speak out.

    If you feel disonant personally because I have a life then perhaps you should cut yourself out of the funk you’re in and get yourself one too?

    I just got back from a month in Europe. It wasn’t the first and only I have taken this year and it won’t be the last. My last trip was for business though. The next will be to refresh myself somewhere tropical to recover from the ‘hard work’ I had to do in Europe over the past month.

    I guess if you were qualified to do anything you would also be in demand and being sent to rep your profession or skill set for a company/organization willing to pony up the approx 20 grand it takes to send a businessman to Europe for a month AND you’d be able to have a more interesting life AND perhaps we wouldn’t be having this conversation or IT WOULD BE OF A DIFFERANT TOPIC?

    Hate the game, not the player dude. But please feel free to loose your slings and arrows. I have a few bolts in the quiver myself.

    Current score: 1
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  3. 99
  4. other ted Says:

    On Garth’s site there is a poster who keeps mentioning the grow op premiun in Vancouver. There could be some truth that grow ops add to the average income in the city. But I doubt enought to justify these ridiculous prices. Now that is an industry I know nothing about, but if everyone has a grow op shouldn’t the drugs become worthless as supply is abundand. Or are there that many pot heads in the US that happen to be rich?

    Current score: 0
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  5. 98
  6. other ted Says:

    okay I expect with all the bad news out there that crash 2.0 is around the corner in the stock market. When this happens I wonder how it will shake up the real estate industy. Everyone talks about the rebound in real estate these last few months but the stock market has not done so bad. Lets see what happens next month. I predict October will be the beginning of a trend downwards. It may not be evident right away.

    Current score: 3
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  7. 97
  8. Lilypad Says:

    @Boombust: CHEAP is the word. Disposable is another. At least with good furniture that lasts a lifetime you don’t have to replace it every few years because the finish is peeling off (veneer) or it’s disintegrating from moisture (mdf). Oh, well we have to keep those chinese factories busy, eh? Why hire Canadians to do good custom work when we can buy cheap sh*t from China?

    Current score: 6
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  9. 96
  10. Arwen Says:

    @scullboy: I had a friend go for vacation in Toronto – she was born and bred here. I lived in Ontario for a number of years. She commented on how cheap things were, how much there was to do, how gorgeous the architecture was.

    And for the first time since getting here, I thought: damn. This city is more money than it is worth for so much more than housing. I even *like* snow.

    My only issue is that my friends and family are all here. Now, if we did a mass relocation of, hm hm, 60 people, I’d be out of here in a jiff. Sadly, it’s unlikely to happen.

    So, we’ll rent. For now.

    Current score: 7
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  11. 95
  12. Boombust Says:

    You know something, realpaul?

    For someone who’s touring around Europe, you sure spend a lot of time on this blog instead of visiting old cathedrals.

    Current score: 4
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  13. 94
  14. Boombust Says:

    “Well, IKEA is NOT exactly the same quality as custom furniture”

    Well, la di da.

    A lot of it looks good and it’s CHEAP!

    Current score: 2
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  15. 93
  16. realpaul Says:

    @patriotz:

    #91 P, the mania we are witnessing right now will go down in a future ‘McKay’ compendium ala ‘Extraordinary delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ as one the all time greats. We are watching the circus parade by without getting the most out of the entertainment value. Consumer idiocy is, after all, the greatest show on earth. Feel free to laugh until you puke.

    Its not often we get a front row seat to history. I have my popcorn bucket filled and a bag of confetti at the ready for when the Christians ( real estate bag holders)begin to stampede out of the (Pacific) Coliseum and realise the doors are barred and the lions are very hungry ( it is announced that its over) and the Emperor has no clothes. I can hear the screams now. How delightful.

    #91, Lily, tomatos, tomatas. The snob edition of an IKEA knock off has little intrinsic value in the second hand furniture market. For those who have paid multi thousands for ‘designer’ furniture and such must find public auctions very distressing.

    Current score: 0
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  17. 92
  18. Lilypad Says:

    @realpaul: Well, IKEA is NOT exactly the same quality as custom furniture — sorta like comparing MacDs to Feenie’s burgers http://www.flickr.com/photos/yusheng/2034185469/ OMG!

    Current score: 1
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  19. 91
  20. patriotz Says:

    @realpaul:

    “One in four American mortgages that are “under water”, meaning they are worth more than the home itself, are in California.

    In a few years you will be able to substitute “Canadian” for “American”, “BC” for “California”, and quite possibly “one in two” for “one in four”.

    Current score: 8
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  21. 90
  22. realpaul Says:

    The Death Throes of California

    “One in four American mortgages that are “under water”, meaning they are worth more than the home itself, are in California. In the Central Valley town of Merced, house prices have crashed by 70%. Two Democrat politicians have asked for their districts to be declared disaster zones, because of the poor economic conditions caused by foreclosures. In one city near Riverside, a squatter’s camp of newly homeless labourers sleeping in their vehicles has grown up in a supermarket car park – the local government has provided toilets and a mobile shower. In the Los Angeles suburb of Pacoima, one in nine homeowners are now in default on their mortgage, and the local priest, the Rev John Lasseigne, has garnered national headlines – swapping saving souls to saving houses, by negotiating directly with banks on behalf of his parishioners.

    For some campaigners and advocates against suburban sprawl and car culture, it has been a bitter triumph. “Let the gloating begin!” says James Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, a warning about the high cost of the suburban lifestyle. Others see the end of the housing boom as a man-made disaster akin to a mass hysteria, but with no redemption in sight. “If California was an experiment then it was an experiment of mass irresponsibility – and that has failed,” says Michael Levine.

    Nowhere is the economic cost of California’s crisis writ larger than in the Central Valley town of Mendota, smack in the heart of a dusty landscape of flat, endless fields of fruit and vegetables. The town, which boldly terms itself “the cantaloup capital of the world”, now has an unemployment rate of 38%. That is expected to rise above 50% as the harvest ends and labourers are laid off. City officials hold food giveaways every two weeks. More than 40% of the town’s people live below the poverty level. Shops have shut, restaurants have closed, drugs and alcohol abuse have become a problem.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....state-debt

    Current score: 4
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  23. 89
  24. realpaul Says:

    @patriotz:

    P #88, they do have a say in consumer discretionary rates such as the HELOC, Auto and Credit ( hey, who says you can’t take 30 years to pay off a HELOC or Visa loan) which is why I added the proviso ‘that they control’, but….clarification is a good thing, thanks for your input.

    Current score: 2
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  25. 88
  26. patriotz Says:

    @realpaul:

    Banks have recently raised all long term rates they control

    Banks don’t control long term rates. The bond market does.

    Banks are just intermediaries. They borrow money and lend it out with a profit margin. If they have to pay more to borrow, they have to charge more to lend.

    Current score: 8
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  27. 87
  28. realpaul Says:

    The BS propaganda of late has overwhelmed the fact that fundamentals are still in the dirt. Is it human nature to seek comfort in a storm? The article attached caught my eye and reminded me of an interview I caught recently by the author of ‘Juggling Dynamite”. We ( our precious media mind) forgot that green shoots and talk of recovery were all machinations by the desperats governments to have us restart the economy after they had wrecked it. We were expected to bail out the banks after they had lost all our money and support industries ( auto and housing) that had been gouging us for years.

    The big head fake in the recovery propaganda was the concerted effort the government made to skew the optics of the non-recovery. A huge moratorium was placed on foreclosure offerings in the US to try to clear up the inventory. But that hasn’t stopped the banks from foreclosing, thos properties have been piling up on the books and the moratorium is now expired. The second tsunami of foreclosed properties is hitting the markets overwhelming current supply.

    http://southflorida.bizjournal.....ly71.html#

    We saw the CFC program artificially skew the GDP numbers higher along with the super cheap money for mortgages scam. When the CFC program was withdrawn the market again crashed and we saw Saturn fold immediatley, too bad for the buyers of those products eh? Believed the swill and got a chill, brrrrrrrrrrrr.

    We are hearing from the CDN government lucid explanations of how the economy is roaring ahead while at the same time we witness increasing job losses played down as part of a jobless recovery and corporate profits which they state ( Flahhhhhhherty said yesterday) will improve in ‘two to three’ years. Is that a recovery or a pipedream?

    Banks have recently raised all long term rates they control and the indebted just got the bad news on their HELOCS where the rates in many cases have been increased a full 100 basis points. When the HELOC is 100% of your equity as it is in many cases that represents a bit hit to your ‘profit’.

    recently you may have noticed the new push to trash your cash with many bank economists coming out stating that saving is ‘dangerous’. The government is whining that CDN’s are putting too much cash away in spite of the effort to convince the populace that there is no benefit to savings ( evidenced by their efforts to drive the interest returns on savings to the negative) and thereby convince you that cash is worthless. Saving money means fees and taxes aren’t being collected and they don’t like that and so they manipulate the saver and position them to fall into the CRA thresher.

    If it is true that 85% of new home buyers are 1% away from being underwater in their mortgages then we are mere millimeters away from the abyss. Whatever the catalyst may be doesn’t have to be more than a whisper of negative reality to push the farcical ‘recovery’ back into the second leg of a W recession, and with the government having blown it’s entire wad into saving the phoney Keysian recovery last year only to having seen it fail, where will our salvation come from from? Can they print more and make it even cheaper? Its all yet to be seen.

    But as the woman from ‘Juggling Dynamite’ said ” We’re primarily in Cash”. Thats probably not bad advice.

    Current score: 10
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  29. 86
  30. realpaul Says:

    @Lilypad:

    #84, L, I can buy a similar table and chairs set at JYSK or IKEA for under $600. These must be the same people who’s HELOC was burning a hole in their pockets. Bwahahahahahaha !

    Current score: 0
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  31. 85
  32. patriotz Says:

    @Supraboy:

    You got it, BC’s going back to a sellers market.

    BC has been in a sellers’ market for the past five years, because it’s a sellers’ market if the market price of a house (or anything else) is more than it’s really worth – in other words, it’s the seller who is making the right decision and the buyer the wrong one.

    Current score: 20
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  33. 84
  34. Lilypad Says:

    I came across this ad on craigslist — I’m guessing that someone spent $6000 on dining suite to stage their home and are offering the dining suite at a discount of $3000 to be picked up only “when we have an accepted offer on the house.”

    NOW I’ve seen it all!!!

    http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....36589.html

    Current score: 5
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  35. 83
  36. ave Says:

    Oh dear. Such pain on this blog.

    Current score: 1
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  37. 82
  38. BoB Says:

    I already left the shithole called Vancouver. Totally over run by gangsters and money launderers. Fucked up place…

    Current score: 0
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  39. 81
  40. Supraboy Says:

    Yeah, that’s me, I said leave this town.

    Current score: -16
    Reply to this comment
  41. 80
  42. DEFAULT NAME Says:

    No point spewing, just leave.

    #32, Scullboy.
    “It’s sad but to be totally blunt, I don’t think natural born Canadians can move to Vancouver and compete. Guys like Supraboy can because they live with Mummy and Daddy but that’s hardly competing, it’s just extending adolescence indefinitely. I think you’ll all agree his posts illustrate my point perfectly.”

    Current score: -4
    Reply to this comment
  43. 79
  44. Vansanity Says:

    @Dr Topper:

    LOL! Nice, I just wonder how that interest is doing to his networth and I wonder how a 10 or 20% decrease in price would do for his overall financial health. But then, whom am I just a poor bear with six figures of liquid cash at my disposal and zero debt, ho hum, life sucks, poor me.

    Current score: 10
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  45. 78
  46. Vansanity Says:

    @landlord: Hi Landlord, thanks for replacing our decks, fixing those leaks and replacing our flooring this year, awfully kind, and thanks for the rebate for putting up with that. You’re too much. I know $800 rent per month is tough, especially with two incomes, but we’re finding a way to manage while we bank $4k per month… ya landlord, I didn’t want to go there bu $4k is an average and yes, our net worth is soaring, higher than ever, plus with the holidays we keep taking… life hasn’t been this good. Thank you landlord, thank you for subsidizing our lifestyle, the 8 minute commute to work for us is just great. – just another dumb bitter renter – LOL!!!

    Current score: 21
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  47. 77
  48. Dr Topper Says:

    “I love it when bears claim their networth is soaring. Really? How much you putting away little bear? 500-600 a month? Har har har har. I make that an hour.
    – The landlord ”

    I really like this comment! I illustrates, with diamond precision, the absolute stupidity of anyone who would buy Vancouver real-estate under the current market conditions. Do you suppose that he really thinks that bears don’t buy because of a $600 per month ‘owning premium’? Try 10 times that amount per month. I can’t wait until I’m his landlord, clearly I won’t have to wait long. Bring it on! :)

    Current score: 25
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  49. 76
  50. NO - LYMPICS Says:

    #67 realpaul:

    yeah..Hawaii and other offshore locales.
    I seem to recall the Japanese started that bubble…but regardless such investment is dependent on greater fools unless one rents out ones ofshore unit.

    However, as you say bracket creep , kicks in….but it is worse for those who bought at the peak. In addition,things like estate taxes will kick in and blindside many Non US citizens. Timeshares are already suffering , so I can see freehold sales tanking. Better to rent the place for 2 weeks than own it and use it for 2 weeks.

    IMHO, if you are a non citizen or non resident, you have a big bullseye on your back re: taxes etc.

    Even locally, I was discussing with a relative who lives up coast on an Island near Campbell River. No services at all,(no power, phones etc….like Gilligan’s Ilsand but his portion of the taxes is over $2000…for what ? I told them sounds like their regional district cast a net and included them,and can thus gouge them on taxes for squat all in return. They should vote themselves out , which they can.

    Current score: 3
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  51. 75
  52. NO - LYMPICS Says:

    46 X Hovering Says:

    October 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm

    patriotzed

    I think you miss the point of the G&M article I linked. THe author and briefly the COnservatives were proposing changing the captila gains laws so that selling a ppty would not attract capital gains tax so long as you reinvested the $ within 6 motnhs.

    ======

    Ya’ll remember when Jean Chretien Liberals took away the $ 100, 000 lifetime exemption for capital gains ? ( this was over and above principal residence exemption). Chretien and Paul Martin were the authors of that bogus deficit reduction, sucking and blowing at the same time.

    I agree, assumin gthey are leaving the prnicipl residence issue alone, don’t encourage people to re-invest within 6 months…, simply to create or maintain more bubbles???? It’s time to unleash the hounds of fundamentals who have been caged up for too long.

    Current score: 1
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  53. 74
  54. patriotzed Says:

    @Carioca Canuck:

    When the largest apartment owning landlord in CANADA says that RE is too expensive to buy right now and that they are not going to do it…….time to take notice.

    They are talking about multi-unit rentals, not the individually titled properties (condo, SFH) which are the topic of this blog.

    But ponder this: price/rent for multi-unit rentals is WAY lower than for individually titled properties. If Boardwalk thinks the former are too expensive, what does that say about the latter?

    Current score: 9
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  55. 73
  56. woof Says:

    Last week I posted along these lines about the macro economy vis a vis Vancooover, and just read this in the FP about Britain, and their recent recovery in real estate. I think it’s exactly the same situation here. Nap time for bears….wake up hungry when the time is right:

    FP:
    “So prices can keep rising, but only if interest rates stay low and banks soften their terms for new buyers. But the reverse is more likely. If the U.K. economy keeps recovering – and the International Monetary Fund has just said it will do so more sharply than previously expected in 2010 – then rates will eventually rise, probably well before banks return to pre-crunch levels of lending.

    That leaves house prices in an odd place. If the economy stays weak, rising unemployment and lack of mortgage supply will keep a lid on a recovery. If the economy motors, rising rates could re-open the Pandora’s box of forced selling. Either way, the bearish case is still strong.

    Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/o.....z0SuOfptS8

    patience bears, patience.

    Current score: 6
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  57. 72
  58. Carioca Canuck Says:

    @landlord: To answer your question……$2,600 – $2,800 a month actually……..

    Current score: 3
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  59. 71
  60. Carioca Canuck Says:

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/b.....story.html

    When the largest apartment owning landlord in CANADA says that RE is too expensive to buy right now and that they are not going to do it…….time to take notice.

    Of course, what do they know eh ? They’re not gouging 7% from each and every sale…….so that does not make them “professionals”.

    Heh.

    Current score: 11
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  61. 70
  62. other ted Says:

    I am more of an Oahu guy. Its the best of both worlds,quiet in the north, with the hussle and bussle in the south. I was only briefly on maui but found it full of mcmansions and suburbs with no city. but it is beautiful. But I get your point. Renting allows us to visit. And even to buy hawaii is a much better deal than vancouver. That is right Hawaii a real resort destination is a better deal than fake resort vancouver.

    Current score: 2
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  63. 69
  64. read on Says:

    on the interwebz, everyone is a millionaire! one million dollars!

    tool.

    Current score: 6
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  65. 68
  66. landlord Says:

    I love it when bears claim their networth is soaring. Really? How much you putting away little bear? 500-600 a month? Har har har har. I make that an hour.
    – The landlord

    Current score: -35
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  67. 67
  68. realpaul Says:

    BTW, that ‘grand a month’ is only the strata fee, does not include prop taxes and management fees etc etc.

    Current score: 0
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  69. 66
  70. realpaul Says:

    @Anonymous:

    #64, Property taxes, maintenance/building schemes and management fees are extremly high in Hawaii generally. I know a guy who pays close to $1000 per month to hold a two bedroom at the Kehie Akahi on S. Kehei Road, older building, nice enough location, not worth the grand a month and was only justifiable when prices were going up. He’s shitting nails rght now though because the bills are still high. Property taxes have gone up as well as all other costs inherant with living in a dream world, literally. The costs were deferred when the tourists were renting regularlily but business is off some 30% and the place has become an alligator for investors.

    Frankly I don’t understand why it got this way, except to think that its a situation of ‘bracket creep’ thats gotten out of control due to a complacency built in by a high percentage of absentee owners and a longish period of escalating land values which has now reversed quite sharply. Owners just got lazy and thought the upside would never end.

    I am a big fan of Maui as well. Its a great place to be a tourist or a part time retiree, but, you don’t want your kids in the school system over there. The indigenous Hawaiians are very much a differant culture. Drugs/booze related crime are real big problems on the islands. There is a hard underbelly of poverty obvious in the local communities and especially now with the recession pushing unemployment up more than triple in the past twelve months. The housing projects and crack crime are not something a tourist generally sees while laying on Waikiki Beach during the day.

    Homelessness is growing exponentially. Fortunatley for some its a bit easier to be homeless when its warm all the time and you have the beach park showers. There are a great many families now living in tent communities in beach parks with the kids still going to school. A lot of these people are working poor, holding down jobs but unable to afford accomadation.

    The County governments are being real assholes are pushing these people around though and making their lives miserable in keeping with the idea that the tourist is king and they don’t want to mar the view with these nasty undervalued hotel workers and unprivelaged flotsam littering the beaches. Sound familiar Vanshitstain?

    I access a website which dumps all the new listings into my mailbox. The foreclosures and shortsales have been huge and growing. Many areas of residential Maui ( forexample) are down as much as 50%. But it wouldn’t be comfortable for a ‘haole’ to live in these areas. In the tourist meccas like Kihei prices have been also coming down albeit more slowly because the market has been supported by ex-pats. But those condos are soft and depreciating as well as there are many retirees and off island buyers who have lost big in the credit and equity meltdown and now are having to dump their second homes. Sound familiar Shitstainers?

    Paradise is not immune to the vagaries of the market obviously. Vancouvers little bubble will pop just like every other . The catalyst is just going to be differant.

    Current score: 5
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  71. 65
  72. Digi Says:

    @Anonymous: Really? I suppose it comes down to personal preference, maybe it’s a bit isolated for some people. I love the climate and would consider living there if I had a way to make a decent living. I enjoy Vancouver most of the year, but the winter here really depresses me with the lack of light.

    Current score: 1
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  73. 64
  74. DEFAULT NAME Says:

    “If house prices can fall in a paradise setting like that Vancouver doesn’t stand a chance!”

    Maui: nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there.

    Current score: 3
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  75. 63
  76. Digi Says:

    Hey Vansanity, we were in Maui a few months ago and you aren’t kidding, what an amazing paradise. We went to four of the islands and that one was our favorite. And did you see what’s happening to property values on the islands? If house prices can fall in a paradise setting like that Vancouver doesn’t stand a chance!

    Agree with you on the savings point too, there’s a real level of comfort to having the ability to travel and still have money in the bank. I feel quite fortunate to be in this situation.

    Current score: 11
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  77. 62
  78. patriotzed Says:

    @Dave:
    You are the one who doesn’t understand the difference between asset price inflation and consumer price inflation.

    Asset prices are determined solely by what the buyer is willing and able to pay, because nobody ever has to buy assets, but somebody always has to sell. If people stop being willing (or able) to pay inflated prices for houses, house prices will come down. That’s all there is to it.

    Current score: 17
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  79. 61
  80. Dave Says:

    @patriotz:

    I don’t think you understand inflation. We all participate. It’s cooked into the system.

    Current score: 1
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  81. 60
  82. patriotzed Says:

    @rubberduckie:

    I know the human cost of this bubble is obvious, but what of the poor houses? People buying them at peak won’t be able to fix anything. It’s a bit sad.

    At least the homeowner has some control of the situation. They might be able to save money by doing the work themselves, or sell the house to someone who is able to do so, or just sell the property for land value.

    None of these options are available to condo owners whose strata is unwilling or unable to perform required maintenance. It is possible for the condo owner to lose everything (except the mortgage debt of course) if the building deteriorates enough – the land value per condo is negligible. And this is not a hypothetical scenario – it has already been reported on this blog.

    Current score: 19
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  83. 59
  84. Vansanity Says:

    That CBC “news” article makes Foxnews look like PBS. What sellouts. Not a mention of interest rates, currency exchanges, employment, income… nah, that would require real journalists. It infuriates me to see advertisement being passed off as news over and over. The real problem is limited media outlets all trying to make a profit. Pathetic.

    My wife and I just got back from Maui a while ago. What a paradise!!! That was our 3rd trip this year and the 6th in the last 2 years. Renting has been the best decision we’ve made. Net worth continues to soar… I’m not sure if I’ll ever buy even if the market did crash. I’m chillin and lovin it.

    Hi everybody, I’ve been in the shadows but still here.

    Current score: 30
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  85. 58
  86. Mark Downs Says:

    @Machiavelli: The moment these blogs have no traffic is when you know the market will tank.

    sounds like a reasonable theory, but I dont think that’s how it worked out in the states. From what I remember the bubble blogs had increasing traffic while the market tanked.

    Current score: 14
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  87. 57
  88. Machiavelli Says:

    Porkyflu said: “So what the hell are we doing here? Why even participate in this scam?

    The moment these blogs have no traffic is when you know the market will tank. But it seems these blogs always have huge traffic. So guess what, the market is always top of mind around here. That IS the problem.

    Current score: 6
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  89. 56
  90. rubberduckie Says:

    I feel upset that our landlord lets this house deteriorate. Instead of fixing a small roof problem when it started years ago, he lets it go, and now the whole side of the building is rotten and moldy. It might get repaired in the spring, but it will be a costly job that only gets worse each month.

    I know the human cost of this bubble is obvious, but what of the poor houses? People buying them at peak won’t be able to fix anything. It’s a bit sad.

    Current score: 9
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  91. 55
  92. Boombust Says:

    “…way back in LA in 1989. I was ready to buy my first house or condo after being in apartments my entire life. Unfortunately, this was the height of the last bubble and I couldn’t afford anything I liked. I thought a lot about moving, and even took a few trips to scout out some other cities. In the end, I just rented until 1993 and the problem took care of itself. I bought a small house for about 50% off peak prices.”

    I have always said our market are/were in synch.

    For the UGLY AND OVERDUE upcoming Vancouver correction, look South, once again.

    They are our canaries in the coal mine.

    Current score: 20
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  93. 54
  94. DEFAULT NAME Says:

    yar, seems like a lot of hassle to save effectively 700 a month (half yr current rent)

    Current score: 3
    Reply to this comment
  95. 53
  96. realpaul Says:

    @Anonymous:

    #52 Jeez dude, why not just get another girl to move in and save yourself all the hassle?

    Current score: 8
    Reply to this comment
  97. 52
  98. DEFAULT NAME Says:

    Ok, fuck buying, fuck renting, I ll become the richest homeless of vancouver! Will see where it goes.
    How did I end up on such a crazy resolution?
    As usual it s a girl story! Basically my GF got a new job and need to go away for a year out of vancouver.
    We were living in a wicked condo in downtown, perfect location gorgeous view for a “reasonable” rent of 1400 all included.
    But now that she is leaving the 1400$ just don t cut it. I got a decent paying job and I could afford it by myself if I wanted but the idea of spending so much of it on rent just kill me. So I gave notice to my landlord. My first idea was to try to find a small one bedroom or a large bachelor for 800$. Oh I was so wrong! Yup I can find some of those. They are basically small old piece of shit basement suite lost in the boring suburbs of vancouver… I m going to end up far from work adding a 45mn one way commute to live in a depressing piece of shit suite. I was so pissed after visiting a particular nasty one with no light, wet, dirty that I realized going back to my vehicle that my truck was as large and certainly more comfy than this place.
    Then a light bright up in my silly brain:
    Here is the plan, and it is going to simplify my life for the next year for the better.
    #1:Work like a mother fucker. Nothing come free and I have loads a backlog in my work. I love my job and I want to succeed. So I will happily go for a daily 12h+ a day. That will keep it busy most of the time.
    Then I m going to enjoy Vancouver to its best. With all the money freed from rent. I’ll enjoy going out to see my friends more often, dine out in the best restaurant, get the shape of my life at the gym and the pool. Watch all the movies I want on the big screen and spend hours at the library.
    When the day it s over I ll just crash exhausted in my truck in the back alley of one of my friend house so I keep everything legal. No windows in the back an inflating mattress and a super cozy warm sleeping back. Then back to work. For the WE, I m going to get a whistler season pass and ski every single one of them!. To keep all my stuff organize I ll get a storage.
    I think that should do it.

    I agree this is a little bit extreme solution but in my particular case I think it is going to be perfect.

    For all the greedy Scumlord of vancouver, go fuck yourself :D :D :D

    Current score: 26
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  99. 51
  100. observer Says:

    Bond yields have tumbled recently. It’s an ominous sign.

    Current score: 4
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