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Friday free-for-all!

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242 Comments

It’s the end of another work week and that means it time for another free-for-all! This is when we do our end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few links to kick things off:

–YOY sales numbers take a dive
–West Van Slide
–That Delta smell?
–Canada’s economy expands 0.1%
–Campfire ban with $1 million fine
–Foreclosures up in 75% of top US metros
–Paulson: housing policy must be sustainable
–Recovery losses speed

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

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jesse

@Anonymouse: "I can’t tell you how many chinese families I’ve met that have wanted to move to the west side so their kids could go to the best private schools."

You should tell them private schools don't have catchments! 😆

I remember having a great discussion over how one's quality of education at grade school, not university, is the largest determinant of future success.

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Anonymouse

Eh, I went to one of those lower ranked schools and here I am — a well paid professional living in the best place on earth sipping cranteenies on my patio like everyone else that went to York House. Ok, so I'm a jizzbag renter and my landlord has a beehive, so what?

I can't tell you how many chinese families I've met that have wanted to move to the west side so their kids could go to the best private schools. They are willing to sacrifice a lot financially to make this happen. Personally I think this is a waste of money. This isn't the U.K. — nobody here gives a damn what school anyone went to. At the end of the day how you prove yourself after school is over is what matters.

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jesse

@Zergling: "Can anyone explain what the legal implications are if you buy a house that has had renovations done without permits?"

I remember one place I saw that had the breaker box in the downstairs bathroom. If you do buy the place, ask for discounts because there were no permits. If the Realtor says that the "normal" practice is for Vancouver to have illegal renos so there is no discount, laugh, because it's a lie.

In terms of legal implications, I think the City can inspect and tell you (the owner) to bring it up to code but I don't know what latitude they have for fines for non-compliance. In Vancouver, they usually only inspect upon receiving a complaint.

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Anonymous

@crabman:

"Down in LA for a few weeks. I met a friends husband today who is a professional actor. When I brought up the possibility of him getting work in Vancouver he said the following:

“Not anymore. They still do some production work up there, but most of the acting work has gone to Detroit. With the high $CAD it’s not really worth it.”

Has another BC industry bitten the dust? Is there anything doing well right now that isn’t RE related?"

There are several major productions shooting in Vancouver this summer. Your friend's husband shouldn't blame Vancouver for the fact that he can't get a gig.

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fixie guy

@ crabman

Conversely, I was talking to someone scouting locations in town for a major shoot just last Friday who said the opposite, things are busy here.

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patriotz

@GB:

And if that price tag is a bit rich for you the house right next door, also lake front, recently sold for $675K.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/1235-SW-152nd-Street-…

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stagnate

vhb says: DT-FN condo inventory is down 20% over the last month. (See here.) Is there an explanation for this that does not rely on bear wishful thinking?

you really expecting carnage downtown? this is a market thats more or less been stagnant for three years. the flippers have primarily exited the market over that time. demand has not exactly lit it up but either has supply. some post olympic shake out is in order. i'd look to the suburbs for more drama, leaky condo liquidations and rental restriction bylaws are a couple of factors helping a bearish demand/supply dynamic.

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GB

OMG. This is what you get in Seattle for $1.8mill. Actually you could prob get it for $1.6.

http://www.historicseattlelakefront.com/

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patriotz

@Anonymous:

Overheard a conversation at the grocery store:

“We put our Tsawassen property up for sale but the market is really slow and we haven’t gotten any offers”

“What are you going to do?”

“If it doesn’t sell we’ll just rent it out, we’re not going to sell it for less than it’s worth”

Yet another quote straight out of Ben Jones' Housing Bubble Blog circa 2005. It's like some Star Trek or Twilight Zone episode where people are stuck in a time loop but don't realize it.

I will extrapolate a bit and assume they plan to buy a new place and rent out the old one until the market "recovers". For the outcome, check Housing Bubble Blog circa 2007.

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Jimmy

* 141

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Jimmy

Crabman says:

“Not anymore. They still do some production work up there, but most of the acting work has gone to Detroit. With the high $CAD it’s not really worth it.”

Detroit and other "depressed" US cities have provided tax incentives for production to be done in those cities.

The high CAD vs USD has made every exporting industry suffer, including film industry.

Forestry is another example….lumber at US$300 x 1.50 = CA$450; at current FX rates: US$300 x 1.03 = CA$309; a reduction of $110 revenue when costs in CAD.

Strong CAD is great from cross border shopping, but lousy for exporting industries.

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Vanrod

@crabman: Thanks for the made up anecdote, but you have no clue

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crabman

Down in LA for a few weeks. I met a friends husband today who is a professional actor. When I brought up the possibility of him getting work in Vancouver he said the following:

"Not anymore. They still do some production work up there, but most of the acting work has gone to Detroit. With the high $CAD it's not really worth it."

Has another BC industry bitten the dust? Is there anything doing well right now that isn't RE related?

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4slicesofcheese

@203

My wife is attending the free English courses available for new Canadian immigrants and PR's at Mosaic center on commercial dr. In her class she talked to two of her classmates. One is a woman from china and her occupation is "real estate investor" and the other is an Indonesian woman who works at KFC. She separately asked both of them their opinion of Vancouver real estate, the Chinese woman said without a doubt it is going down now. The Indonesian woman said Vancouver real estate is going up right now. I would like to mention the Indonesian woman lives in a 7br house half of which is rented out.

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superboomtime

Bear teacher and rich asian buy condo like bear buy toilet paper. Hard to understand for poor little bear scratching at slit of light in moldy basement but it's true. Reason why kid do so well with union teacher is because of smart real estate investment by teacher. Bear you should have paid more attention in school.

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Zergling

Can anyone explain what the legal implications are if you buy a house that has had renovations done without permits? The place we looked at on the weekend had all new plumbing and electrical but the realtor said the homeowner did it all himself and didn't get permits for the work. He then tried to justify it by saying the homeowner was an "engineer", as if that somehow implies he knows how to re-plumb a house.

Besides the obvious safety concerns, what legal issues could a new homeowner encounter in this type of situation? I'm wondering if the house burned down because the previous owner didn't wire something correctly, would the new owner's insurance refuse to cover it?

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oneangryslav2

@Jimmy: I agree. I also think they're asking too much. A $30,000 cut would probably get a few nibbles. We'll see. I'll keep everyone posted.

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Jimmy

oneangryslav2 Says

"It’s been on the market for seven weeks now and there has been no offer yet"

———————————

No disrespect intended, but perhaps it's overpriced relative to other similar listings in the neighbourhood. If she wants to sell now, she may need to lower the asking price. Just my 2 cents.

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oneangryslav2

@Dan in Calgary: Don't worry, Dan. It's nearing the end of a long weekend without much real estate news. Once Pope creates a new blog post, the comments will reflect that change.

As for real estate news, my sister had an open house (in Coquitlam) yesterday and there weren't many attendees. It's been on the market for seven weeks now and there has been no offer yet.

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jesse

All that anti-BCTF rhetoric is so tiring. Quit blaming teachers for your child's poor performance. Step up to the plate and be parents for crying out loud. Looking at the Fraser Institute results is silly because they don't adjust for income levels. 1) You are paying through the nose to live in an area that (I will assume) is pushing your affordability limits. You therefore have to trade off your children's extra-curricular activities and vacation quality to do this. 2) You assume that surrounding yourself with affluent people will usher your child into university. Maybe, because you and your children will be at a financial disadvantage compared to your peers, you will be on the bottom of the curve in the Fraser Institute studies of your area. The BCTF is in an awkward position: since socioeconomic factors strongly affect academic… Read more »

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avatar

Florida condos for less than a Prius.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/real_estate/1…

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VHB

DT-FN condo inventory is down 20% over the last month. (See here.) Is there an explanation for this that does not rely on bear wishful thinking?

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Devore

Also, the rational actor view also assumes we have complete and accurate information about the market, and a bunch of other idealized economic nonsense.

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Devore

@Anonymous: Well, we already know economic actors aren't rational, something compounded by usually conflicting long- and short-term considerations and government distortions of economic signals, but it's good to have someone to quote in your bibliography when writing about it. It's why central planning will fail every time.

It's pretty arrogant to think everyone does what is in their best interest. Reality is we do, at best, what we PERCEIVE to be in our best interest. Just look at any bubble.

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Dan in Calgary

Sure hope this blog doesn't go the way of albertabubble.blogspot.com.

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