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

Also doesn't change the fact that higher property assessment values can mean a lower property tax rate even if the tax has actually gone up. If enough people believe the property tax is set based on a rate then a lower rate will give the appareance of doing a good job to keep the costs down.

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

Tamil is a state in India, not a race

Well actually Tamil is the language spoken by (surprise) Tamils. Tamil Nadu (which literally means "Tamil Land" is a state in India. Tamils are an ethnic group whose homeland is Tamil Nadu and who also live in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere. Whether you want to call an ethnic group a "race" is subjective and not worth debating.

realpaul:

The Big Lie is that prices go up. They don’t. The purchasing power of your dollars goes DOWN.

Are there prizes for this kind of thinking? The price of something is how much money it takes to buy it. The purchasing power of money is how much of something you get for a given amount of money. In other words, one is the reciprocal of the other, and if one goes up the other goes down, by definition.

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

Sikh is a religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh

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

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

You don't really understand how municipal taxes work this has been covered 1,000 times here so I won't go into detail but it doesn't work the way you think it does.

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

I agree, Ulsterman. I lived in South Granville for about five years, and it was sad to see old places like the Normandy shut down to make way for yet another women's shoe store. Even the butcher has moved to kits (on 4th) because it's more affordable. I guess its proximity to Shaugnessy makes the landlords ask high rents. Glad they are not getting them.

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

"High real estate prices are a stealth tax. Governments, at all levels, pursue policies that tend toward higher real estate prices.

Why? It’s a way to raise taxes without officially “raising taxes.”

The key beneficiaries are the municipal politicians and municipal public employees, but also the provincial governments, along with the federal government.

Higher assessments mean higher property tax revenue. This means that municipalities require less in the way of transfer payments from the provinces, and, in turn the provinces need less from the federal government.

Feeding the municipalities with high real estate prices leaves the feds and the provinces with more money to “redistribute.”

This is before we even start talking about the sales tax revenues associated with building, buying, selling, and maintaining property.

Maybe we need to rethink the way we do municipal finance?

Perhaps eliminate all property taxes, with a corresponding increase in provincial sales taxes, with municipalities getting a transfer from the provinces based on population?

Has anyone thought about or written about the housing bubble from this angle?

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Cariboojohn on 11.12.09 at 3:56 pm

Hi Garth

I live downtown Vancouver- Gastown, in somewhat of a new building. 1996 It has 170 suites in it.

I was just reading my council minutes.

One lien has been placed on a unit.

Two last warning letters for two units.

And four warning letters to units.

That seams high to me.That thay can`t pay the mantenace fee`s

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

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

The B.C. Supreme Court has ordered a home inspector to pay nearly $200,000 in compensation to a North Vancouver couple for a faulty home inspection he performed.

The court found that Imre Toth of Aldergrove was negligent because he failed to inspect the entire home, and should have advised the couple to hire a structural engineer before they bought the $1.1-million house in September 2006.

Current score: 6 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)