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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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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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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“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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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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http://www.zillow.com/homes/12.....en,-WA_rb/

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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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http://www.historicseattlelakefront.com/

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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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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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“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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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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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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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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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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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 performance, it muddies the waters about actual teacher and school quality. Going down the road of accepting stratification does a severe disservice to some children from lower incomes who deserve on merit to succeed. Luckily even the “bad” schools and teachers are good enough to allow these kids to go to university. I’ll take that over some lazy rich kid any day.

But maybe you’re right. Maybe surrounding yourself with wealth will make you wealthy. Here’s some inspiration for you:
Herman Blume’s Speech

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http://money.cnn.com/galleries.....index.html

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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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