Thoughts and prayers with the people of Christchurch this weekend.

Panic Buying In Local Move-Uppers

"I have friends who are panicking to upgrade before the Mainland Chinese price them out and before the mortgage rules change."

http://wp.me/pcq1o-1Uk

An anecdote about locals extending themselves even more into RE based on two beliefs –

– 1. "Prices will continue to increase."

– 2. "The mainland Chinese are going to price us out."

The first belief has driven almost all Vancouver buying for 5-6 years.

The second has increasingly affected buying by locals, even moreso this past 1-2 years.

Regardless, we have people buying for speculative reasons. (They are paying stratospheric prices based on the belief that prices will continue ever upwards, _not_ based on the utility of the property.)

Note that the sentiment mentioned is now 'panic'.

Panic buying. When does that happen in the RE cycle?

@AG Sage: Just realized this slipped in yesterday. Didn't see it on the list above. Sorry for the duplication. And I'll add what I was going to add earlier but didn't.

Maybe I'm just an obnoxious American, but my response is "Suck it up."

You can't be all for hospices somewhere else (in response to a quote from the article). That makes zero sense. Unless you are proposing to use a shanty on an ice flow or something.

Price change alert!!

MLS® V850984 at 4943 JOYCE ST.

After 163 days on market the price has been reduced from $685,000 to $683,888.

Line ups commence tomorrow at 10:00 am.

@Best place on meth: "4943 JOYCE ST"

Gem in the heart of prime Collingwood.

@coastal:

How are the Ides of March different than the Ides of:

– The Global economic meltdown

– The Fall 2008 correction

– The 'post-Olympic crash'

– Increasing overnight rates by the BOC

– Olympic Village meltdown

– Five year fixed rate qualification requirements

– Changes to refinancing rules (95 to 90%)

– 20% downpayment on investment real estate

Can't fault you for having hope.

@jesse:

According to the description it's near a coffee shop, and we all know the Chinese love their coffee.

@Dave:

Dave, how about the Ides of:

-Debt problem in Canada, especially in BC

-Increase of employment in Canada, except in BC (Whoops)

-Increase in income, but BC among the lowest of all provinces

-Realtors like you having too much time on the hands and keeps blogging to stay oblivious

@Best place on meth: It'll be at 8:08am with coffee in hand.

@specialfx3000:

How about the Ides of:

– More employment now than pre-recession levels

– Lower unemployment

– Strong growth in wages

– Recovery in the forest sector

– Strong immigration stats

– Stronger government revenues and a pending return to balanced budgets

– Oil prices up

– Strong natural gas sales in the North East

– US economic recovery

– Strong imports from China

It's a great time to be alive!

@Dave:

Awesome, with all those fabulous economic indicators it's a great time to raise interest rates.

@Dave: I agree, Dave. The economy looks to be slowly improving. Hopefully the Libya fiasco comes to an end quickly. It will be a great day when rates start rising again and unemployment drops, hopefully at the same time in the case of BC. High unemployment and rising rates would suck @ss.

@Westside Hag:

Linky?

@Westside Hag:

I thought it was a good idea for an article, but it was poorly formulated. It's an interesting observation, but the causes of it were not explored.

The biggest problem in my opinion are poor verbal and written english language skills. Education and skills mean little when you are unable to communicate effectively. Credential recognition is very overrated as a root cause. All the professional associations have mechanisms in place for foreign trained people. If you don't have the language skills to navigate your way through a system, you aren't going to make it through.