You know the drill…
Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
200 Comments
Nice post Blue Acorn. Pretty much spot on. However, while that might be the median income for your neighborhood it's well above Vancouver's. 30% is very optimistic.
@exWestEnder: @exWestEnder: Well said. We have the similar experience like you guys. My wife and I have lived in China, Hong Kong, Taipei, London and LA, and have travelled to many places (she's a travel writer). Vancouver is one of the most humanistic places. No it's not perfect, especially for its lack of meaningful culture and a strong creative industry but Vancouver is a very livable space. It's a bridge between the old world (Europe) and the new world (N. America) and the East and the West. Vancouverites are not the easiest bunch to befriend with but overall they are accepting. The food scene is great and the outdoors are awesome. However, its housing price is purely not justifiable. It's so high that it's hurting the city's future. Young and economically actively people can't afford to live here. When most… Read more »
@Just saying: ha ha turds.
This blogger said Winnie Chung is wanted in Taiwan for frauds related to sale of a Vancouver house without the owner's consent
http://gb.udn.com/gb/blog.udn.com/alpineatks/4344…
Mad,mad,mad Vancouver real estate.
Just finished reading a ridiculous article in the Sun trying to adress myths as to why real estae can't go down. the two year old that must of wrote it says its because we are running out of land. I can't think of any other city with over a million people that has a lower population density. That has to be the biggest myth that keeps on getting repeated.
Just got an e-mail from one of Ozzie's henchmen..
What is going to happen to Real Estate?
Find out at…
Outlook 2011
Real Estate Conference
PREMIUM TICKET PACKAGE – $147 *(+hst)
…or, I could just read the hard data and news presented on this blog daily and come to a much much more accurate conclusion…for free! hmm…
What housing bubble?
http://blog.andyharless.com/2010/08/what-housing-…
I love how it advertises stainless steel appliances and right there smack in the kitchen (great location, NOT!!) is a white washer/dryer combo. Liars.
I used to hear all the time from our RE agent in Victoria – someone just called from Germany and they want to buy property – Cash! He said it about 3 times to us. He also said it to the press (Times Colonist if you can call it press). He was the President of the RE Board – yup someone from Germany just called me today to buy property – cash!
I wonder what he is thinking now.
@The Pope:
It's Monday in Asia.
@Best place on meth: Writing it now, but it's not monday yet is it? Are you so excited you can hardly sleep?
As a non Chinese non Asian who's not into numerology married to a non-Chinese Asian also not into numerology with a non Chinese half Asian child just learning to count on fingers, I have only one thing to say.
Time for a new topic.
Pope?
Ah, I think it has become ridiculous. At this time and age we, Canadian residents, should be able to call it as it is, without fear of offending anyone. Why should anyone be offended by their own race or ethnicity, or when others acknowledge it…
@Best place on meth: As a non-Chinese Asian, it always irritates me when people say "Asian" when they mean "Chinese". (It's particularly irritating when a Chinese person says it to me.) Not all of Asia is into numerology, and of those who are, not all of them see anything significant about the number 8. I may look a lot like the Chinese majority in Vancouver but they know I'm not one of them – the least everyone else can do is keep in mind that I'm not one of the horde, either!
$650,000 – $649,888 = $112.00 not $12.00.
Whoa! Big money! Big money!
I never understood the strategy either. I can see retail stores doing it, so they can say such and such is under $x dollars ($x – $0.01), but how does that work for something you are paying 100s of thousands for? I find it insulting actually.
Just the math.
$650,000 – $649,888 = $112.00 not $12.00.
It's not $650K, its $649,888. It may only seem like $12 difference to some, but that $12 will attract Asian buyers to the listing like bees to honey. Or bees to laneway houses.
http://www.mls.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId…
Sarcasm off now. Seriously, don't Chinese people look at this type of pricing and just laugh at the desperation and stupidity of the seller and agent?
The must be getting insulted by now.
Just came back from several open houses in Vancouver DT, and noticed that some realtors are pulling an old trick: at 1255 Seymour St the realtor was not in the lobby, so crowds would gather in front of the building and wait for realtor to come downstairs. The intention obviously is to create a sence of "urgency" as if there were crowds of people looking to buy 650k for 860 sq.ft condo. There were a few Chinese coples, one guy did not even want to go upstairs. He was just laughing at the price and sent his wife up. We did not want to go, no point of heckling the realtor now, will come back in a month or so though. Across the street – another open house, at 1228 Seymour, falsely advertized as 2 bdr. (it was one bedroom… Read more »
Wyng Chow, a former real estate reporter for The Vancouver Sun, is accused of receiving a "secret benefit" from a property developer. Chow was fired from the paper in December over this issue, after 32 years at the publication.
http://www.hidelinkonline.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDo…
" However, Graham claimed that all reporters know that certain
things are unacceptable, including making up facts for stories,
stealing someone else’s work, and writing about someone who is
providing a financial benefit to the reporter. "
Just saying
@oneangryslav2: Ha! And there's another mistake, but I won't fix it. Anyone need a copy editing job? 🙂
My sister and her husband have had the same realtor since 1992, which is when they purchased their first house and they've been satisfied with his work to this point. September should be interesting.
@VHB: Another way to look at it is from the POV of those directly involved in the REIC. Low inventory isn't necessarily a good thing. It's all about the sales — for Realtors, developers, mortgage brokers, home inspectors, banks, etc. Fewer listings doesn't increase sales when new speculators aren't appearing; how can it? From that perspective there is what amounts to an ongoing recession in these industries. I also think the Olympic GDP boost is still showing up in Vancouver as money sloshes around for another few months. This is a waning effect and I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of the reason Vancouver and FV have fared better than other parts of the province. I think given how severe the housing recession is in other parts of the province there will be a shift in government spending away… Read more »
@oneangryslav2: I should really proofread prior to clicking submit. Let me try this again:
"How any idiot, especially one who passes himself off as a expert on the real estate market, can say that a there is something called a “normal” real estate [market], let alone that in a “normal” one prices go up 10% annually, is beyond me. I guess I can’t stomach the thought of whoring myself out on television."
@VHB: "1. The ‘rush for the exits’ by specuvestors happened in the spring." I doubt it. From what I have seen there were significant de-listings in the downtown area where investors make up a huge portion of total sales. I know of people who pulled their places off the market and have tried to rent them out instead. 2. There hasn’t been much mortgage stress Yes. Rates are significantly lower than this time in 2008. "3. The ‘move up’ market has frozen." Yes. Low sales, high inventory, and de-listings are not independent of each other. "4. …taking their place off the market" Sure and I'm not convinced all of them are renting them out. I wouldn't be surprised to see an influx of short-term tenancy in downtown units (common for some Asian investors) or them just being kept dark until… Read more »
And I would add that Tsur pimping RE is more egregious than Lereah, at least Lereah had the balls to be out of the closet; on the other hand Tsur , plays the unbiased academic.
Shameful,