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Who wants $75 bucks?

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88 Comments

Who wants free money?

..or a free barstool?

Ok.. so it’s credit actually and not entirely free – but it’s still a very good deal.  We’ve been approached by CSNstores.com to give away a $75 gift code to use on any of their sites, including allmodern.com, cookware.com and everygameroom.com.  Go ahead, treat yourself to a foosball table or an acid green bear lamp.

So how do you get the credit?  Well we’re a random meritocracy sort of site, so here’s how it will work.  Any registered member that submits a story within the next two weeks (or already has a published story) is entered to win the credit.  We’ll take the total number of submissions and put them into the random number picker over at random.org to select the winner.  The $75 gift code will then be emailed to the address associated with the winning members account and you can do whatever you want with it*.

Just a few simple rules: Add your article submissions at http://vancouvercondo.info/submit.  you can submit as much as you want, but each submission must be original content.  If you link to a current news story you must present your own opinion or analysis on it at the very least.  Copy and paste content will not be accepted.  Content must be submitted before midnight November 30th, but may not be published until after that date.

We’ve had a good run of community submitted comment lately and would love to see this continue.  Thanks all!

*What you do in the privacy of your own home is up to you.  Promo Codes can cover domestic shipping costs within the US, but there are some International Shipping taxes and duties that it will be unable to cover, but hey.. $75 bucks.
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patriotz

@Anonymous:

Well, this is what happens to incompetent showoffs.

Sorry, but this is exactly what this city deserves – a giant slap upside the head.

You got it, and remember the "incompetent showoffs" are really the voters of the CoV who thought they could get a free party, not just the people at City Hall that they elected.

You get what you vote for.

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Devore

@Dave:

As to your scenario… sitting on the sidelines waiting for a potential 10% correction strikes me as a poor proposition.

Why is "sitting on the sidelines", saving money and investing in other opportunities a "poor proposition"? It could only be if you are expecting some impressive asset inflation and/or wage growth in the near future, which seems like a rather poor assumption to me. If you are wrong, you will be stuck with a house you will be increasingly unable to afford to sell.

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jesse

@Dave: "sitting on the sidelines waiting for a potential 10% correction strikes me as a poor proposition."

Well on that front I wish you and any reader who chooses to take your advice the best of luck in the coming years.

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Dave

@jesse:

Risk and speculation cut both ways. For all we know, interest rates could be zero in five years. Or we have massive inflation and assets double in prices.

As to your scenario… sitting on the sidelines waiting for a potential 10% correction strikes me as a poor proposition.

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jesse

@Dave: "higher interest rates to an existing owner are likely offset by wage inflation under a rising interest rate scenario."

Of course one could do the math where a same family chooses rent for 5 years. In 5 years they buy a significantly better house because they save increasingly larger amounts per year as their wages increase. The family who bought doesn't and can't upgrade.

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Dave

@jesse:

I don't disagree with your math. Your point is correct, but so was mine. Again, my point was that higher interest rates to an existing owner are likely offset by wage inflation under a rising interest rate scenario.

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NO-LYMPICS

Construction is booming

http://www.richmond-news.com/business/Constructio…

After a sluggish 2009, the construction industry has rebounded in Richmond by breaking records.

As of the end of October, the City of Richmond has processed 1,511 building permits with a construction value of more than $769 million.

This far exceeds the $163 million value in 2009 and beats Richmond's previous record of $658 million in 2006.

=====================================

More MSM pumping

Some of these projects have been years in the making

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McLovin

Garth has another great post tonight
http://www.greaterfool.ca/

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jesse

@Dave: "I don’t follow your logic."

I can't help you with your logic but I'll put the numbers up for the benefit of other VCI readers. So I can at least say I've done the math.

First time buyer family earns $100K per year. Assume can afford $30K towards mortgage payments per year. Interest rates at 4%. 25% down. 35 year am.

They can afford $550K mortgage.

Interest rates go up to 6% in 5 years. A similar first time buyer family now earns $116K (3% annual wage growth of same job) meaning they can afford $35K mortgage payments per year.

They can now afford $500K mortgage.

My math says prices come down.

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Dan in Calgary

Pressed [Submit] to quickly. When I wrote "there was a lot of other stuff" I meant to say "there was a lot other (good) stuff"

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NO-LYMPICS

@jesse:

As I've said before…gov't should have never gotten involved.They deserve the damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Where is Rennie..I thought they had this great marketing plan, does the emperoRennie have no clothes (Ughh perish the thought)

IMHO, COV should simply sell at a haircut, via reserve auction or whatever. OV has fixed costs like utilities, not to mention the lost property tax revenue which will be foisted onto all other COV property owners.

The entire project has got notoriety as a dead dog for sale or re-sale…

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Dan in Calgary

@best place on meth, "Real estate has turned this city into a cesspool."

Agreed. It's absolutely brought out the worst in people. Yeah, philosophically we could say maybe it was always there to be brought out of people, but there was a lot of other stuff that used to be nurtured in people that lived in city where I was born. Real estate (and resulting greed-nurture) has brought Vancouver's demise. Anyone one to venture a guess as to how long it will last? Do we have to tear down the buildings, or can we recover Vancouver's soul in another way?

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Anonymous

47 Dave;

Were you breast fed and is it that time of the month?

Anyway, enjoy your OV condo…..

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Best place on meth

@Drachen:

You see Drachen, it doesn't matter if they call themselves "troll" or "Dave".

They're all the same.

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Dave

@Drachen:

Do you think every product that person buys also goes up 50%? Slight flaw in your logic there, no? I'll let you stew on that for a bit and let you figure out your own errors.

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Dave

@jesse:

I don't follow your logic. It doesn't matter how far into your mortgage you are. It's the monthly payment relative to your income that matters.

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Drachen

@Dave:

"I have done the math here before and wage inflation more than likely will offset higher interest rate costs when you consider a five year period."

By "doing the math" you mean you stuck your finger in your arse and pulled out something to support your argument with right?

A 1 million mortgage at 2.95% 35 year am. costs $3,810 per month. In five years you'll have paid nearly nothing off. If interest rates jumped to 6.95% (not on the likely end but far from inconceivable) you'd be paying $6,284 per month. If it was somewhere in between you'd pay something in between. I don't think wages will jump 50% or more in the next five years do you?

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Canadian Wiggler

just for discussion…

Canadian home prices should be ringing alarm bells

http://financialinsights.wordpress.com/2010/11/17…

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jesse

@Dave: "I have done the math here before and wage inflation more than likely will offset higher interest rate costs when you consider a five year period."

In terms of someone with a 5 year mortgage perhaps wage inflation will protect him. But a first time buyer who needs to buy at future rates must pay less as higher interest rates increase payments at a significantly faster clip than implied wage growth. Your math conveniently ignores that.

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xyz

OV Receivership.. This is Awesome (for the developer!)

They get to walk away and resume business scott free(likely under a new freshly minted Corporate Name)

Dump the maintenance and Strata fees on the Tax payer meanwhile the Upper Management of Millennium is off to Vegas to spend the hefty salaries they have acquired at the tax payers expense.

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realpaul

#55 P….correct…you make the most money the day you buy a property……if its a good deal you'll make money…a bad deal will always stink. Someone was saying that the 'bond market' is indicating that rates will remain low……oh my naive little chicken. The only 'bond market' that is keeping intrest rates in check is your own government issueing paper and buying it back. The government has been issuing debt at extremely low rates to itself because it knows that the taxpayer won't catch on when the goverbnment scoffs at suggertions that the debt is too high……"we borrowed at very low rates" they say.Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha from the taxpayer that is. You've been fooled into thinking that soem kind of nebulous support network has been shovelling money into Canadian real estate because why???????????? Think about it……ask yourself why Canada has surpassed the US… Read more »

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Best place on meth

@Dave:

>>> The bond market suggests that variable rates are going to remain low. In order for rates to go up, I believe that we are going to have to have inflation above the targeted rate of 3%.<<<

Which part of your post would you like to correct first?

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xyz

More OV stuff (there is a PDF of the official order if anyone is interested)
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/…

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Keeping An Eye on Th

I just want to clarify that by no means do I include Paulb in the turd attack.

Paulb has been consistent, honest and forthright from the very beginning.

My apology, I should have made the point at the outset.

I do think however that most regulars would know which blogging Realtors are the two turds.

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Dave

@jesse:

I think people need to consider all potential future scenarios. The bond market suggests that variable rates are going to remain low. In order for rates to go up, I believe that we are going to have to have inflation above the targeted rate of 3%. And that's just not happening right now (hence QEII). If it does, then presumably the economy is growing strong again, which implies both wage and asset growth.

I have done the math here before and wage inflation more than likely will offset higher interest rate costs when you consider a five year period.

If people are so sensitive that they can't risk taking out a variable rate mortgage, then they should stick with fixed rates. Really concerned? Then go with a ten year rate.

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