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Friday Free-for-all!

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242 Comments

It’s time for our traditional end of the week Friday free-for-all post where we round up the weeks news and have our open topic economic discussion for the weekend. Here are a few stories I’ve noticed lately:

–Businessweek: Vancouvers Bubble Trouble
–11 Olympic Village buyers want out
–Reading the mortgage fine print
–Royal and TD trim some rates
–Big bank growth offsets office vacancies
–Economist muses on comparisons to 1930s
–g20 leaders face worries about rising deficits

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

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Newcomer

They are really pulling out all the media stops:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Wealthy+Chin…

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vibe

@Coastal

Did these people buy in Vancouver? How would they lose money selling today if they bought a couple years ago?

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Patrick_saint

It's a blog that discusses real estate and occasionally daily news events which may or may not be directed related to real estate. If you have something interesting to say I will read it otherwise fuck off!!!!

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buff_butler

@Patrick_saint: No one cares. This is a real estate blog.

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Patrick_saint

Eponymous

YOU ARE AN IDIOT. If you still think the cops and security forces used today in Canada have the peoples interest at heart you are an idiot.

They don't work for you and I, they work for Shell and Royal Bank and Pfiser and anyone else with tons of money like Revenue Canada.

Please….

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crashcow

"Based on evidence that has always and only been observed during or immediately prior to U.S. recessions, the U.S. economy appears headed into a second leg of an unusually challenging downturn."

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc100628.htm

…This should help accelerate our housing bust like in '08.

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Anonymous

@sluggo: No press for the slime please

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sluggo

Boombust,

Both of those posts were from bears.

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Anonymouse

@patriotz:

Vancouverites are the most gullible, self-important, and self-entitled bunch of fools on the planet.

So you admit "its different here"? Ha ha.

You forgot to mention the total herd mentality here. This is a city full of sheeple, completely incapable of independent thought. On a street with three lanes everyone drives down the middle lane (heaven forbid you should have to merge, this requires paying attention). People go grocery shopping in packs of 10. People will see a lineup and automatically queue up, sometimes for nothing (olympic pavillions with nothing in them), sometimes for overpriced crap (condos, bad pasta), half the time not even caring about what they've lined up for. But everyone else is doing it so they should too!

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Boombust

"2 posts on Chipman today"

Oh. Him. I'm surprised anyone still bothers.

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sluggo

Wazzup with the RE bull blogs?????

2 posts on Chipman today.

A few more on the Johnny Horton blog, but most of them are from some zombie pumping dick meds.

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patriotz

@realpaul:

In fact aren’t residents here paying 70% for shelter.

Well no.

And if you know anything about China, people in market rentals (i.e. not the old state-owned ones) pay WAY more of their income on rent for much less space than people here. HK too.

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domus

Some interesting stats about the US housing market as of today, and the general supply situation:

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/06/housing…

Clearly an oversupply to last a few years. Notice that this are national figures, but even the most sought after locations in California and the East Coast are experiencing over-supply and ever decreasing valuations. Notice also that borrowing costs are close to an all-time low.

Interesting times ahead for us, i bet.

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Supraboy

Ok, after spending 4 months in Hong Kong, now that i've had a chance to drive around Vancouver today, I have a different opinion. I saw loads of "For Lease" signs out there on commercial buildings. What the hell happened after the olympics? I leave for 4 months and this place turns from a bullrun on real estate to a setup for a plunge. I also drove by the Olympic Village, that place looks sad especially with a big paved lot there instead of a park. I saw the initial development plans 3-4 yrs ago and it does not feel anything like what it is meant to me. What kind of joke is this. The worst part is seeing a lot of businesses go under. Bear or bull, it doesn't matter. The fact is Scullboy's not around and he'll never… Read more »

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realpaul

#226 BPOM , but look at those rent/income ratio's, far lower than Vancouver. We have plenty of examples of 250 sq ft condos ( Electra ex) and cockroach and bedbug infested units here ( highest infestation in N.AM) as well. In fact aren't residents here paying 70% for shelter. And I can tell you….it isn't just the Chinese girls whp don't shower more than once a week or so. I have been in elevators and restaurants here where well dressed young women have literally smelled like like they hadn't washed for a month. And….. I did hear also that the Secretary General has decried Canadas police arresting and beating of journalists. Some have been detained for days and their news orgs haven't heard from them. So maybe we shouldn't look down on whats happening in China when we have a… Read more »

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coastal

@jim: I know a couple who were forced into buying a couple of years back cause "daddy knew best" and he co-signed and coughed up the downpayment as they work low level jobs. The suite in the basement idea never worked out cause they kept getting assholes for renters and they had to put their kids in an illegal daycare to save money.

At the least they advise their friends to not buy, but they can't sell cause daddy will lose his cash and they're stuck paying most of their income to the mortgage. I can imagine how many other young couples are locked into this same scenario.

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Best place on meth

"…..a city so expensive that the average white-collar professional can't afford to buy a home."

Hey that sounds like my city!

BEHOLD THE ANT PEOPLE OF CHINA!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100627/ap_on_re_as/a…

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jim

@patriotz: And in about 2 years from now half of them will be whining and crying to the media looking for a bail/handout "waaa.. we never saw this coming… waaaa… why did'nt anyone warn us? waaa… how could the government and the banks let us do this to ourselves… waaa.. everyone else was doing it!…" The people that I know that have bought in the last 2-3 years are oddly enough the dumbest people I have ever met. Most of them are crying already because they don't have any money after barely making their emergency low interest rate mortgage payment. It's all I can do to not give them a good hard kick in the nuts.

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Anonymous

@granite countertop:

Seems that if you look at the history of Vancouver it is all about speculative land deals. There also seems to be a current of racism running parallel to this. I'm not saying it's unique to the place but it's a bit hard to ignore when you look back.

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Anonymous

🙄

Meanwhile, back to real estate: Any bets on what the next presale to hit the news with buyers trying to get out of their contract is? I'm sure this will happen with the killer river green development, but that will be a while.

There's a development near 12th and Kingsway that was pretty expensive for the neighborhood, not sure how their presales went, but wouldn't be suprised to see buyers start to panic and try to get out of their contract if the market keeps going in this downward direction. What else is nearing completion?

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sensibleone

BTW it is now being reported that the police are running scared from the negative publicity and have begun to arrest and confiscate, reporters, cameras, equipment and producers are being cuffed and taken away to unknown destinations. These are CTV CBC and international press representatives. They RCMP are planning murder and don't want another 'Djikanski case' on their hands. Welcome to the KGB vision of a fascist Canada.

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sensibleone

Even the dimwits on the CBC have speculated that the police cars were left suspiciously in areas where the police had already cordoned off the protestors. It is seeming more likely that the police torched their own vehicles as an excuse to attack the crowds.

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Eponymous

@sensibleone: Yeah! Whatever happened to the good ol' days when anarchists could torch a police car in peace without big bad bullies like the Toronto mayor saying people that do such a thing will be dealt with as criminals?

Sheesh. Nice handle, too bad it doesn't help you get a grasp on reality. Crawl back under your bridge troll.

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sensibleone

Don Newman of CBC reported today that world leaders have been complaining that the security in TO has been 'heavy handed', 'thuggish', 'unrealistic response'..overall complaining of Canada's descent into a police state. I say 'what descent'? We can see that the police have been planning this show of force since well before any of this happened. Wellcome to NAZI CANADA the Fascist leadership wannabe of a new world order where you either pay your taxes and shut up or you get bullets and gas.

If you get a guy from the CBC reporting this, you know its bad.

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joeblow

Yup, that gut feeling that the end is nigh is turning into a rush as we're running out of excuses, and the descent from the summit will definitely be more dramatic than it was on the way up.

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