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Friday Free-for-all!

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Hey! The weekend is nearly here! Lets do our regular end of the week news round-up and open topic economic discussion thread. Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Scotia: Soft landing for Canada, Vancouver will outperform
–BMO: Housing overvalued, future dip for Vancouver?
–Capitol Economics: 25% decline across Canada in 3 years
–Most liveable city, just ignore the drugs and crime
–Wealthy Chinese will save our market!
–Wealthy Mexicans will save our market!
–52% of Clark campaign contributions from real estate?
–“Skip a payment” turns 30 year back into a 35 year amortization
–Economist global house price tool
–ECB shocks markets with rate hike hint
–The Fall of Hong Kongs gilded generation
–

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

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Runawayscreaming

Besides the Whalley-esque crime scene in Victoria, there's the less in-your-face crime scene that's much larger. The west coast of Vancouver Island is a trans-shipment point for go-go powder and a lot of revenue properties on Vancouver Island are used to grow plants that people stick in their mouths and light on fire. Of course it's just a rumor but certain motorcycle enthusiasts seem to have an inordinate interest in all the riches that Vancouver Island has to offer. They seem to operate the biggest non-taxable business enterprise on Vancouver Island, with the help of their associates and all the speculators who are renting their properties out so that plants can be grown in them. No one on Vancouver Island (especially homeowners) would question the presence of such a disproportionately large number of motorcycle enthusiasts so visibly present in their… Read more »

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chip

@patriotz:

Victoria is number two. No amount of hemming and hawing is going to water down th conclusion that it has a serious crime problem.

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Runawayscreaming

While we are exposing the dirty truth about Victoria let's not forget:

– Wildly demented seniors in Jaguars

– Extreme excess number of Douchebags in Range Rovers

– The most dangerous Thrifty's parking lots on earth

– Scam artists from the VSE that now live in Fairfield

– Off-leash Pit Bulls in Esquimalt

– No urban planning whatsoever

– The most aggressive panhandlers in Canada

– The lowest wages in Canada

– Basement apartments with spiders the size of pie plates

– More white-collar criminals than you can shake a stick at

– Headquarters of Money Mart

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rp1

#180 @KWL: "That Global piece really makes Vancouver look provincial." Gee I hope that wasn't your first hint. I don't understand how anybody could be so impressed by this place. It has got to be a bunch of deluded locals and their foreign relatives. I mean, if I were a foreign RE investor I would be buying New York at these prices. For up and coming cities I'd look to South America. Chile in particular. If English is a condition, try Belize. Waterfront lots are 200k. It's 1/10th the cost of Kelowna and there's only one season. Of everyone, I think the Australians have it the worst. They actually have a nice climate and everybody lives near the shore. They have something to sell. It's easier to forget that the prices are insane when you see something like this: http://www.neoproperty.com.au/propertyimages.cfm?…… Read more »

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REIC is watching us

@vreaa: Christy Zettl is getting a lot of free publicity for a her practice. BTW its based in Kelowna and is so new that she doesn't have testimonials yet http://www.kelownahomeopathy.ca/ (yeah yeah, I know, more publicity)

Unless her parents are millionaires (as in cash, not Westside crackshack), there is no way she could afford the unit. She obviously cut some kind of really sweet deal with Rennie. Perhaps he now has a personal homeopath.

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patriotz

@Anonymous: Wouldn’t you know it, the jewel known as Victoria ranks second in Canada for violent crime, with a percentage 80% higher than the national average. That's City of Victoria, which gets a highly disproportionate amount of the crime in the whole metro. You can't compare crime statistics for non-metro jurisdictions with those for metros, which is what you have for major cities outside BC because they have metro police forces. In any case almost all victims of violent crime everywhere in Canada are victims of people they know. Those few who aren't are vastly outnumbered by victims of traffic accidents, which are by far the greatest cause of violent death and injury in any city. But people don't get worked up about it because we accept traffic deaths as "normal". Notwithstanding that the homeless/druggie problem in Victoria has brought… Read more »

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asia man

@ Anonymous. I live in Victoria two months out of the year usually and my family always tease me that I think its pretty violent there, especially downtown at night, plenty of dodgy crazies running about. Thank you for posting this article, I now can rub it in their nose that I was right!

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4SlicesofCheese

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20038876-1…

Here is some real reporting. And some real reporters.

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vreaa

Anybody At Global BC TV Still Consider Themselves A 'Journalist'? – Another RE Infomercial Run As 'News'

Transcription and Images of recent 'Village On False Creek' First Buyer piece.

see
http://wp.me/pcq1o-1Wz

Breathtaking images of all the shiny appliances.

Hurry!

Before we consider broadcasting actual news again!

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Anonymous

@Victoria: The Victoria area has several private schools with international reputations. We're moving there for one of them. Apart from this, some decent soccer clubs and the so-so scenery there doesn't seem to be much there. And the number of crazies in the city is worrying. In the past few weeks I've been paying attention to Victoria news a birdwatcher was pushed off a cliff for no reason at all in Oak Bay and a helpful bystander then beaten up in front of his child. The pusher/attacker was released onto the street almost immediately, which is comforting. And the story of the policewoman jumped by a knife-wielding psycho in the middle of the day, again unprovoked, is a bit unsettling to say the least. Wouldn't you know it, the jewel known as Victoria ranks second in Canada for violent crime,… Read more »

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Victoria

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

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Runawayscreaming

The economic sectors in Vancouver are:

– Condo flipping 30%

– Leaky condo construction 25%

– Grow-ops and meth labs 10%

– International organized crime 7%

– Chinese real estate agent helicopter tours 1%

– Car crashes 5%

– Beneficiaries of Provincial Government corruption 4%

– Big Box stores 4%

– Arson 3%

– Traffic jams 5%

– Porsches 6%

– Industry .00001%

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Victoria

Runaway Screaming,

I was talking about Victoria. Actually there are 2 downtown private schools. Right in the middle of it all.

I wonder what percentage of the economy in Vancouver relies on the RE industry. Does anyone have any input?

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Runawayscreaming

The real estate agents can be loaded onto a barge. The "builders" can go back to working in grow-ops.

I'm not sure if you are referring to the schoolyard drug addicts in Victoria or Vancouver. Some schoolyards have more needles than others. There's one school in Mount Pleasant where the kids should really wear steel toe boots.

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CRASH JPMorgan-Chase

Anonymous Communique…….WAR DECLARED

http://maxkeiser.com/2011/03/06/silver-liberation…

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Anonymous

Sales up by 6%… What is this? 70 more? This is less than the number of bargained suites at the OV.

About the Global report: I felt really sorry for the girl. She seems so confident. In what???

She lives in what looks like a shop window. Does she intend to have a private life at some point? Where is she going to put the kids if she has some? For how long will she stand the view and sound of the traffic??? Nice ceilings though.

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Victoria

Runaway screaming:

I wonder what people are going to do once (if) the market collapses. I believe there are 1,300 RE agents on the island and trades and builder trucks are every where. I don't remember it like this when we moved here 9 years ago.

The good ones will be fine but the fly-by-nights will be gone.

We looked at a semi-private school for the kids. It is downtown. I asked about the addicts and they said not to worry – they do a needle sweep every morning on the school grounds. K to grade 8.

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Best place on meth

Whistler may be sucking but Aspen is still hot.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/1122…

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KWL

That Global piece really makes Vancouver look provincial. You would never see this type of crap on Seattle nightly news.

I sent in a complaint to Global.

I rode by bike through the village today, it's still a ghost town. And an ugly one at that.

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Runawayscreaming

Re: Victoria

Victoria is nothing more than another Vancouver suburb running on real estate speculation. Victoria is Surrey with less culture and more traffic. Jobs pay less in Victoria, unless you are lucky enough to snag a plush government job. The underclass in Victoria is remarkable in size and they live in the moldy basements of Victoria speculators. They do not stand a chance of living above ground on typical Victoria wages.

The scenery on Vancouver Island is pretty but the urban sprawl makes Calgary look like a model city. Victoria also has just as many bullshitters and scam artists as Vancouver. It's really a pretty ugly affair when you look at it up close. Victoria is the world headquarters of Money Mart for goodness sake.

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VHB

@VHB: whoops–projected March 2011 sales are 5th not 6th ranked. BTW, the projections use a simple 5-day moving average to fill in the sales and listings numbers for the rest of March.

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VHB

We're only 4 days into the month, but it is worthwhile to point out how far above the norm both sales and listings are right now. I went back to January 2001 and took monthly new listings and sales and ranked them top to bottom. I then placed in there the *projected* March 2011 numbers, given what we have seen over the first 4 days. True, 4 days isn't a lot for a projection, but as we head to March 18th I expect things to get even hotter, not colder, so this might be an underestimate. Listings are on pace for the 2nd biggest month since Jan 2001. Not second biggest March; I mean second biggest of ANY month. Sales are a bit lower down, currently ranked 6th and would drop out of the top 10 even with a slight… Read more »

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pricedoutfornow

@Victoria:

That sounds like what people were saying in Kelowna…3 years ago. "Everyone wants to live here" and "Rich Albertans are buying everything" I went to a hockey game with a friend of mine and all his buddies at the game were giving him high-fives for buying a condo. "Right on man! It'll only go up from here!"

These days it's a different story. Not much is selling at all. Assessments are down A LOT from the peak in Spring 2008. Houses on my street were selling for over $500k, now they're selling for the mid-$300ks. People don't smile so much when they talk about real estate anymore. I know a few people who are underwater. Nobody thinks the market will improve. Oh, how things have changed.

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Best place on meth

@b5baxter:

Ironically, one can become either a realtor or homeopath with a 5 week online course.

They are then free to advise people on the largest purchase of their life or……their life.

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oneangryslav2

@vreaa:

Even funnier: “nearly half of the available units sold out” [ROTFLMAO].

The Phoenix Coyotes' approach to attendance: nearly 1/2 of the total seats available for any home game are completely sold out! Buy your ticket now! Don't delay! If you wait too long almost half the seats may be sold out!

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