Friday Free-for-all!
You made it to the end of another week! Lets do our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat!
-Closer to paid off means more expensive to escape?
-Low income and no savings? Vancity says buy a house!
-Election to kill spring rate hike?
-Anecdote on retirement planning through real estate
-Shaw lays off 500, 90 in Vancouver
-Hot Asian Money will prevent Irving California market collapse (2007)
-8 Shocks about to hit Global markets
-Catalytic Converter thefts rise with precious metal prices
-A new collapse for US housing
-Portugal may need US $99 Billion bail out
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
March 28th, 2011 at 5:52 am
@paulb
Most people around here would rather have their houses be "worth" less money than have their neighbourhoods sterilized by foreign money.
There are some people who are delighted to be cashing out, but many of us are raising families, want to know our neighbours and have a half decent sense of community.
Not to mention that some people have to sell b/c they can't afford the constantly escalating property taxes.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:01 am
@Best place on meth:
I'll get photo, just had my crappy old phone with me. I agree it's really sad.
March 27th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
@Best place on meth:
That of course is exactly what happened in the US. Only a few months after Time Magazine's famous cover in 2005, prices started falling in San Diego. Not because sentiment had turned – that remained bullish right into 2007, or because of foreclosures – they were still well below historical norms – but because it is simply inevitable that if price/rent and price/income are above sensible levels the supply of housing will outrun the supply of capital to buy it. There is only so much dumb money.
That is the root cause of all RE busts, everywhere.
March 27th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
@jesse: Are you saying Vancouver is a provincial city in a backwards country?
March 27th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
@Best place on meth:
"They will only stop when they are forced to ie their numbers have greatly thinned and they can't borrow another nickel."
I'm seeing this already in BC areas outside of Vancouver (Okanagan, for example). I know about half a dozen people who are hugely maxed out on mortgage credit there, though I'm sure a few of them would LOVE to keep buying houses (because life is a game of monopoly, don't you know?), they're completely maxed out. There's no more credit left to be had. And things are starting to get tight with their rental properties (repairs coming up, tenants moving out etc). Since the rates went up last year, there's less cash flow (not that there was much to begin with!), combined with a lot of cheap rentals flooding the market (anyone want to rent a decent 4 bed, 2 bath house for $1400/month?) So they're stuck. Prices have definitely dropped since their peak in 2008 (it even says so in the Real Estate book I picked up while I was out for dinner there this weekend!) but I think it's just the first of many legs down.
Of course, compared with Vancouver, prices look reasonable! But after living there for most of my life, I know they're still too high. The end of this mania is coming, and it won't end well.
March 27th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
@Best place on meth:
Hope your right, looking forward to seeing the April stats/sales without the pre Mar 18th effect.
March 27th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
@Anonymous:
>>>Buyers will only stop when psychology shifts<<<
Cart before the horse. It's the act of buyers stopping that causes the psychology shift.
We're now there, not because buyers have smartened up or decided enough is enough. God no, Vancouverites are the dumbest people on earth and can never get enough. They will only stop when they are forced to ie their numbers have greatly thinned and they can't borrow another nickel.
With years of future demand pulled forward, ownership at an all time high and mortgage rules tightened we're now at that point.
All that's left is turning a slow bust into a fast and brutal one by higher interest rates.
March 27th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
@Best place on meth: "It’s actually too late for a buyers strike as we’re now out of buyers."
If we are really (almost) out of buyers, then now is the BEST time for a buyers strike, because it's efect would be the strongest in an already vulnerable market.