Uncategorized

Friday Free-for-all!

246
246 Comments

It’s free-for-all time! This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic economic discussion post. Here are a few recent links to kick things off:

–Experts gloomy on Canadian housing market outlook
–Toronto, Montreal most expensive of 73 global cities
–Calgary tops family income (Van missing from top 10)
–Reasons too Buy iN Vancouver Now
–10 Reasons to buy after a housing bubble collapse
–Builders ask finance minister for help enticing buyers
–Realtor files complaint against home inspector who inspects home
–Financial Insights: Bear Food
–Realtor Fight!
–Victoria real estate bubble bursting? (video)

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

246 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
VHB

@patriotz: "I take that to mean the capacity of the current car fleet, " But they built the platforms to handle only 2-car length trains. Good luck adding capacity in the future.

0
0
patriotz

@jesse:

I just don’t see highrises growing along the Cambie corridor.

Well that's a function of local residents against densification versus the economic interests for. There are already high rises near Oakridge and Langara and there may well be more. Particularly on those parking lots at Oakridge and the old bus depot. Also from False Creek to Broadway. OTOH maybe not at Cambie and King Ed.

The densification issue is one of the reasons why I think rapid transit will not be built to UBC in the foreseeable future. The residents of that area understand the implications and they have clout.

BTW if the RAV is running at "capacity" I take that to mean the capacity of the current car fleet, not the line itself. It damn well better be, because if not it was a waste of money.

0
0
jesse

@fixie guy: "instead mostly clustered at major interesections…"

… within walking distance of a subway stop. Enter Joyce, Edmonds, Brentwood, and soon to be Marine Drive. I just don't see highrises growing along the Cambie corridor. You saw the reaction when they were going to tear down the "precious" trees on Cambie Street's centre median right-of-way that was designed for future transit expansion.

0
0
rp1

@NO-LYMPICS: I don't know, the thought of these guys cannibalizing each other brings a smile to my face.

0
0
SquareNinja

@Best place on meth:

Some sound advice from Ian Watt.

Hehehe… I'm gonna report this guy to BCREC and RECBC…

Obviously he needs to re-take his licensing course.

Anything that you know about a property that materially affects the real or perceived value, you must disclose. It doesn't matter whether it's on the PDS or not.

0
0
NO-LYMPICS

Just hope that Vision and Mayor Gregor don't watch Soylent Green as their next green agenda.

0
0
FlipFlop

@Ridiculous

Part of the reason behind that may be the drop in demand for premium/speciality products.

As people have less disposable incomes, they tend to cut back on packaged goods and non-essentials.

Manufactures and brand owners can adjust for volume, but in the short term we run low margin promos to liquidate overages before they expire. Check the dates on what you purchased and see how close they are.

Just a thought. What was the brand? If you like gluten free, try the Falafel Chips they sell at Choices. So good.

0
0
fixie guy

It has to be. Rapid transit means densification, and the most expensive rapid transit – underground – means the most densification.

If you mean 'dotted' I'ld agree. Toronto's had far superior rapid transit for generations and those routes aren't lined with high rises, instead mostly clustered at major interesections like Eglington/Yonge, St. Clair and Yonge, etc..

0
0
NO-LYMPICS

High density creates anti-social pontificating assholes…..according to many Nobel laureates

0
0
NO-LYMPICS

VHB and patriotz:

You miss the point…

You displace affordable housing….then where do they go.(oh yeah, empty Olympic Villages $1 Million condos….)

Why does COV Council go against their own planners recommndations ?

Isn't the RAV line already at or near capacity, ceertainly ahead of projections ?

RAV/Skytrain is simply the cart before the horse….public pays for the excuse to densify along the line.

0
0
acefupn

I for one enjoy watching the city densify and enjoy living in dense neighborhoods. To each their own. On topic, I expect the real estate in both types of neighborhoods to crash. 🙂

0
0
VHB

@NO-LYMPICS: Cities densify as they grow. Whadjaexpect? Should we turn the city back into a forest? Or freeze it at your desired level of density forever?

0
0
patriotz

@NO-LYMPICS:

The Cambie corridor, from North to South will eventually be hi-rise.

It has to be. Rapid transit means densification, and the most expensive rapid transit – underground – means the most densification.

You cannot be in favour of rapid transit without being in favour of densification.

0
0
"A-sharp"

I chuckle to myself when people say "my kids deserve that I own a home". Wasnt that an old eyes argument…that bears and renters are not family people because owning is the only stable way to go?

I was recently chatting with my parents about all the homes we've lived in over my life…some of them were owned, some were rented. I had no idea. We were never rich, but my Dad worked hard, stayed out of debt, and we had a lot of fun as a family.

The ironic part was that my absolute favorite place I've ever lived turned out to be a rental.

Kids have no idea whether you own or rent…and they do not care. They do care if you are not spending time with them…but that is for another blog.

Food for thought.

0
0
NO-LYMPICS

See in todays Province that the COV council whacko's are willing to displace rental housing in Marpole for the density agenda. They are even going against their head planners recommendation to leave the area South of Marine and Cambie as industrial and commercial.

The Cambie corridor, from North to South will eventually be hi-rise. Just goes to show that our elected official see residential density as their golden goose, regardless of demand.

0
0
space889

@House: I notice the fruits and especially veggie prices are going up a lot for us. Also some semi-prepared and frozen food like dumplings have gone up as well.

As well the actual weight of many items have gone down while packaging size stayed the same. For example, potatoes chip bags weights have went from I think 320g 20 years ago to ~ 190g today. Campbell canned soup used to require you add an equal amount of water and heat before consuming. Now it comes ready to consume with probably 2/3 weight in water rather than actual content. So while prices have stayed the same or even decreased, how much you get have definitely gone down. I'm not sure if that gets factored into CPI figures or not.

0
0
Best place on meth

Whining about food prices is ridiculous. Food of all things is dirt cheap, in adjusted dollars it's cheaper than it's ever been. Even in non-adjusted dollars some things are the same price they were 10 or 15 years ago. There are so many things that are expensive in Vancouver with shelter being the most outrageous. Yes, a bag of rice went up 50% overnight a couple of years ago and hasn't gone up since. Maybe that's because it was way too fucking cheap at the time! Even with that increase it affected my food costs by a whopping $2 a month. This isn't the 3rd world where a spike in the price of a staple can seriously hurt people. Maybe the food crybabies should stop buying processed shit in boxes and shopping at Safeway, you have nobody to blame but… Read more »

0
0
Anonymous

@logic #219

Stop wage dropping douche! If u wanna make claims post your T4 or keep it to yourself.

0
0
Anonymous

@222

$113K decrease off 1.68M…..whoopdi freakin' doo!

0
0
Vulture Fun

@Ridiculous: I shop at Thrifty's, and although the place certainly does not live up to its name, I have noticed more items on sale over the past year or so. I'll start really paying attention when they drop the price of Reggiano Parmesan under $4.99/100g. Yes, that's right, my personal metric for measuring the global macro-economic situation is the price of my favourite cheese.

0
0
Patiently Waiting

Some types of food are more expensive. You pay a lot for a quality block of cheese now. There is cheap cheese in the grocery store but its not worth eating.

But overall, I haven't noticed much change in my grocery bill in the last couple years.

0
0
rp1

@Ridiculous: That's interesting, I've noticed that food prices have had some of the highest inflation since 2007, and it's particularly brutal because it barely affects core CPI. BTW, the world price of rice is going up. I wonder if Goldman Sachs is preparing to "make" another round of millions malnourishing kids in the third world. It's truly "God's work".

http://johannhari.com/2010/07/02/how-goldman-sach…

0
0
House

@Ridiculous: the tomato pasta sauce I used to buy as a student on sale over a decade ago is about the same price today. When it's on sale like this week it's less. So much for inflation 😉

0
0
Ridiculous

I don't know how much attention everyone else has been paying to their grocery bills lately, but my wife and I have noticed a trend since we got back from summer vacation – "sales" that seem to stay in place for more than a week. For example, my wife is allergic to wheat so if we want bread, we are stuck with a handful of fairly pricey alternative rice/tapioca breads that go for about $6/loaf. These have been "on sale" at two for one at Choices for the last 3 weeks. Generally, over the last 4 weeks, our grocery bills have decreased. I don't think I can reasonably infer anything conclusively deflationary from this limited sampling, I mean who knows, maybe stores know that parents are more frugal to compensate for back to school spending, but has anyone else noticed… Read more »

0
0
Anonymous

V840929 was originally listed for:

$1,688,000, then decreased to

$1,638,000, and now is listed for

$1,575,000

That is a $113,000 !!!! reduction

0
0