I see that David Philip just posted this in the forum – A music video for that oh-so-Vancouver scene: the leaky condo.
From the video description on YouTube:
This just might be the world’s first Leaky Condominium Music Video. Repairing a leaky condo building can take months and months and months. So why not set it to music! Take it away, Rossini! Starring Jacob Breen.
on Big banks facing home credit risk--- #5 @rp1: #1 @jesse: “Banks, on a relative basis, are well protected.” And credit unions, at least where I
on Big banks facing home credit risk"The six banks have a combined $730-billion in mortgage exposure and an additional $182-billion in home equity loan exposure" Well
on Big banks facing home credit risk@Anonymous: "On a relative basis crack cocaine is safe compared to heroin" Actually the opposite, but this is simply not
on Big banks facing home credit risk@jesse: "It should be obvious bank balance sheets will be impaired to some degree if housing prices fall, but it on Big banks facing home credit risk#1 @jesse: "Banks, on a relative basis, are well protected." And credit unions, at least where I am, seem to
September 15th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I thought the music video regarding leaky condos was clever .I had patience for repairing but not for paying the $60,ooo dollar bill not my repisibility. I rented for a few years after selling and losing on my leaker in surrey. In 2005 I managed to put a small down paymnet on new, rainscreend and under warranty condo.
Guess what??? Continue your music.. the scnadal continues.. a 4 page report on deficiencies…too much for myheart but enjoyed your music…
If you are going to blame the victims.. hard working canadinas for this I will not be able to read…thanks for listening you may see me on cbc news
Jen
August 26th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
@Patiently Waiting: Someone should call and ask for their HST registration number.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
@Anonymous: No, we have the occasional high sell/list day, but when you average-out with all the other days its still quite low.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Good news, your rent includes HST
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bnc/apa/1921612…
August 26th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
@Anonymous: Easy explanation: Buyers have been busy all summer mowing lawns while sellers have been busy trying to sell their home.
Buyers are now exhausted from all the lawn mowing and are doing less of it. With all the extra time on their hands, buyers are buying.
Meanwhile, sellers are finally realizing that in order to get their homes sold, they need to start mowing lawns! Sellers have become so consumed by mowing lawns that their listings are expiring without them even knowing.
Hence listings down, sales up!
August 26th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Sell list is getting extremely high lately!
August 26th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
@Whitebear: "but it seems a lot like the Japanese snapping up commercial real estate 20 years ago"
Closer to 22 years ago but yes, history is certainly rhyming. My advice to owners: take their freaking money before it's too late!
August 26th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
@paulb.: See <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GcUKDFoCTBk/SWKpSLeud4I/AAAAAAAAADE/H4OEgEIs8sE/s1600-h/Vancouver+Benchmark+National+HPI+September+2008.jpg" rel="nofollow">here for a graphical comparison of the Teranet and GVREB HPIs.
The two lines have offset uncertainty but Teranet indeed has a lag, evident by looking where the slopes change. If prices continue to decline as reported by GVREB, I have high confidence Teranet will start showing declines as well, with about a 1-2 month lag.
Teranet adds averaging on purpose as it is generally interested in tracking longer term trends so they knock down the signal bandwidth. The penalty is a lag in the reported index over what is likely the reality in the trenches. They do a reasonable job at minimizing it, I think, but it's still there.
August 26th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
http://www.sinovision.net/index.php?module=newspa…
- The commentator, in a TV documentary named "Japan purchased by Chinese?", aired in May was astounded to find premium areas like Shinjuku, Azabu were snapped up by Mainland Chinese
- 11 Resort houses were snapped up by Chinese in Hokkaido and the developer is planning to release 500-1000 more to meet up with the demand.
- Of course, the highest tower in the world, aka "Tower Dubai" previously, would not escape the attention of the Chinese. "Well, price per sq is $6000 Yuan already in the suburban areas in China and the tower is selling for just $7000 Yuan/sq. Why don't we snap it up?", said a speculator.
- In Melbourne, a Chinese business woman paid 120M Yuan for a 9000 sqft Penthouse.
- In Melbourne again, a chinese student, who does not speak English, keep on raising her bids in an auction, securing a 3 bedroom place for 11.4M Yuan eventually.
- Can you imagine the reach of the Mainland Chinese to Jeju island off the Korea coast? A partnership of 150 people bid 183M Yuan for 58 resort houses.
- In Madrid Spain where houses fell 30-40% since the peak, 6 buildings were snapped up by Mainland Chinese. According to the government, 100 foreclosures were sold to the chinese since last year.
- In Italy, Mainland chinese comprises 30% of the foreign puchases.
- In a housing exhibition held in Beijing, developers from the US increased its presence from 2 vendors last year to 8 States and 20 cities this year, a developer from California sold 17 out of 20 of its SFH products.
I have no idea how this will end for those chinese speculators but it seems a lot like the Japanese snapping up commercial real estate 20 years ago around the world, except commerical real estate gave them cash flow while residential gave them nil.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
@jesse: I am pretty sure in 2008 it was lagging the Vancouver benchmark price drops also.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
@ReadyToPop:
Launching an ad campaign?
For Christs sakes, those idiots have had a non-stop ad campaign for 2 years since the last meltdown.
I'm sick them, they're like the tampon ads of days gone by.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
#63 C, Singapore is a meritocracy, really smart people running things, they base hiring, position and promotion on ability. I have spent a lot of time in Singapore and can attest to that city state as having more Ph.D's per capita than any other I have ever visited. In Canada we have douchebag-ocracies run by douchebags who are promoted by seniority not ability, education, track record or intrest. Our government is infested with unionist dickweed that can't run a lemonade stand but exist on the idea that anytime they lose money they can just come back to the well and grind taxpayers for more…thats why Singapore is growing at 35% per Q and Canada is swirling down the toilet. Many people who read only the history of Singapore and have never actually been there will bring up all sorts of nonsense to defend the Canadian douchebaggery but all of that is just nonsense. The affluence in Singers is ubiquitous…the people have a much higher level of income, standard of living and access to education and government services than anything in Canada. Anyone who doesn't understand this should go there, although I doubt most could afford it. By the way… much lower income taxes.
August 26th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Realtors launch ad campaign to buff up their image
August 26th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Teranet uses weighted average data to calculate the index so it's not surprising it is slower to recognize price drops.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Will at http://www.agentwill.com thinks Larry is a genius.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Rising resale home prices set to stall: Teranet report
"The Teranet measure has been lagging the CREA measure by about four to five months, suggesting that this measure too will soon show a slowing in the Canadian existing home market," said Petramala.
http://www.househunting.ca/theprovince/Rising+res…
August 26th, 2010 at 11:16 am
A trip down real estate memory lane with the cheerleading media whores of America…..
http://www.elliottwave.com/freeupdates/archives/2…
August 26th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Two Charts: All You Need To Know About Canada's Housing Bubble
http://wp.me/pcq1o-1fu
August 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
And speaking of incredible, here's one of the reasons why the US is in a hole that deepens every year:
"Miami faces a pension payment exceeding $100 million in the fiscal year that begins Sept. 30, Regalado said, which will consume a fifth of its operating budget. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s both cut the city’s general- obligation bond ratings in the past two months, citing the deficit and pension costs."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-24/miami-se…
Yep, 20% of Miami's budget goes to paying the pensions – not salaries – but pensions of its union workers.
Meanwhile, little free market paragon Singapore has posted average GDP growth of 35% in the first two quarters, without having to rob its grandchildren to pay for it.
August 26th, 2010 at 9:39 am
This from David Rosenberg at Mish's site is incredible. He's referring to new homes in the US:
"The high-end market, in particular, is under tremendous pressure. In fact, it is becoming non-existent. Guess how many homes prices above $750k managed to sell in July. Answer — zero, nada, rien; and for the second month in a row. Only 1,000 units priced above 500,000 moved last month. "
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
They probably move a half dozen new homes over a $1 million in West Van alone every month.
August 26th, 2010 at 9:19 am
New Listings 110
Price Changes 86
Sold Listings 107
August 26th, 2010 at 8:16 am
YAH! YAH! YAH! like my girl friend just have bought a pack of TAMPAX to comply with nature so who on earth can collide with the nature of leak? It's a water buddy it will go through anywhere.However,I am sure you can't see sand blow out of concrete building while you can see it in other part of this world where developer promise you an concrete building while the eat it in realty.
In Vancouver,we have NATURE,DISCIPLINE,and COMPLIANCE thus far Oh My Gosh-Vancouver Is The Best Place On Earth,There's so many way to love this city.
August 26th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Afghani warlords in Chilliwack.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100826/nationa…
August 26th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Looks like Ian Watt's not too happy about the level of sales vs. listings;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IY5qN6ubk8
"We're getting the crap kicked out of us"
August 26th, 2010 at 6:35 am
@ arbitrage. Yes, pay scale is one of the livability criteria, otherwise Monaco would probably win every year.
Detail of the index mix are for paying customers only.
August 26th, 2010 at 6:29 am
@Tony Danza: No, the asking price isn't anywhere close to 4 million. Still, the drop does equate to (low) tens of thousands of dollars. I agree with you, though, (so I must be a stupid bear as well) that a 2% price drop would not get me off the fence. Then again, just because renewed interest happened to follow the price reduction, does not necessarily mean that the one was caused by the other–post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
August 26th, 2010 at 6:16 am
@oneangryslav2:
But but…we have MOUNTAINS! (of course there are no mountains in the US) we have the OCEAN (no ocean in the US) we have HIGH PAYING JOBS!!! (none of those in the US, of course, nope, none of those investment bankers make over $50k).
Crazy. I was talking to someone about that series in the Vancouver Sun about why Vancouver real estate is so high. Population, land restrictions etc all advanced as reasons. But this person pointed out that they missed one key point, maybe the ONLY relevant reason for why Vancouver RE is so high-FREE MONEY! Did the article mention at all the fact that down payments were dropped from 25% to 0? Did it mention the CMHC windfall for banks? Sure, we have increasing population, but so does Africa for goodness' sakes! Fact is, people have been given a whole bunch of free money to buy houses which has resulted in a bubble. End of story. What a bunch of nonsense our journalists write these days.
August 26th, 2010 at 6:12 am
@oneangryslav2: So if they're asking $4 million then they dropped the price $80k? You'd need a stupidly high asking price to make 2% sound impressive in dollar terms. I find it hard to believe a 2% drop would spur buyers into action, but what do I know, I'm just a stupid bear.
They dropped it just over 2%.(It sounds a bit more impressive when looking at the absolute dollar value.)
August 26th, 2010 at 6:03 am
Here's the next episode of "My Sister and her Hubby are trying to seel their house in Coquitlam."
A quick recap: 4BR, 2BA in the Harbour Chines area of Coquitlam. Decent place with a nice, wildernessy back yard. It's been on the market just over two months now, with about a dozen showings, a few open houses and not a single offer.
As of this past Monday, my sis and her hubby decided to lower the price. They dropped it just over 2%. (It sounds a bit more impressive when looking at the absolute dollar value.) Anyway, the have had two more showings since, with the very good prospect of an offer. I'll keep you posted.
August 26th, 2010 at 5:56 am
When I compare the reality in the US to what is happening here in Vancouver, I'm just stunned. The latest new home sales report down there notes a new low for July–276,000 unit sales. What's more interesting from the perspective of one living smack-dab in the middle of the fantasy-land that is the Vancouver real estate market is that of these 276,000 sales, exactly ZERO were sold for more than 750,000! Note that the report implies that is the "luxury home" category!
While not a single new home in the US sold for at least 750K, we have wannabe real estate moguls scooping up east side shacks at that price level.
The report also mentions that only about 1,000 of the new homes sold last month were bought at prices greater than 500K–the average price of a 1BR (with 20 sq. ft. of additional flex space!!) shoebox condo in Yaletown.
YikeS!
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/0…
August 26th, 2010 at 5:51 am
@fixie guy:
it'd be nice if we dropped a bit on the mercer report – i wonder if it's used as an excuse to pay a lower salary vs a comparable job in toronto.