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Friday Free-for-all!

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It’s the end of the week! That means it’s time for our regular end of the week news roundup and open topic discussion thread. Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Metro Vancouver house sales down 8 percent YOY
–Condo sales are cooling off
–Unhappy OV owners dig in for long fight with city
–Moneysense: How to buy a condo
–A higher density Cambie Corridor
–Building code questioned after Richmond condo fire
–Credit unions in BC want to give you money
–Home Capital ramps up uninsured lending
–Weak week for the TSX
–Oil price ends it’s run
–Profit taking window in bond sector?
–The Silver Bull is Selling
–Blockbuster Canada Busted

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

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Don Lapre
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First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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7 years 7 months ago
blueskies
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"The plan, which could see as many as 14,000 new residents in the corridor by 2040, would capitalize on the new Canada Line and result in taller buildings lining the corridor ."

someone buying today with a 30 year mortgage

today would only have 1 year left on that mortgage,

just in time to see the fruition of this idea………..

kinda puts things in perspective 🙁

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7 years 7 months ago
registered
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registered
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Re Richmond fire: ""This fire happened at the worst possible time," said Sean Tracey, Canadian regional director of the national fire protection association, a non-profit association that does codes and standards for buildings as well as fire service."

Lol, because once occupied would have been a better time. What better illustration of the province's unspoken perspective towards the construction industry do you need? This place is nuts.

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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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Gotta love those economists who apparently don't have to live in the same world as the rest of us. Also meta-study??? Geez, can they get any lazier doing research?? Granted it has its use but I personally think it's seriously limited and only for limited purposes.

Anyways, the main was what would happen in Canada takes in 100K more immigrants? Well it's good for total (not per capita as it would drop) GDP, government revenue, and yes, pump up housing prices!

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/more+immigrants+…

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7 years 7 months ago
paradox
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I have no doubt that in our "socialism for the rich and speculators world and capitalism for the rest of us" the condo buyers at the olympic village will be bailed out by the taxpayer money.

Time will tell, but there is a 80% chance that the city will end up reimbursing those condo buyers.

We will just have to suck it up I guess and keep paying our taxes.

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7 years 7 months ago
DaMann
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@paradox:

Not a chance. Why would they give them their money back? COV is already losing big money on the Village, no way they will bail them out. And so they shouldn't.

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7 years 7 months ago
jesse
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MoneySense: Should we all become landlords?

It sounds simple enough. Buy a place. Rent it out. Get the cash. But despite how easy it sounds not everyone is cut out to be a landlord.

So, how can you tell if property fiefdom is right for you?

Well, you can do it the hard way, like my dear, dear friends. We’ll simply call them Micaela and Don.

…

Pretty soon Micaela and Don had to admit: they hated being house owners—having to deal with maintenance and repairs—and they hated it even more when they were doing these tasks for another person.

Food for thought for pretty much any Vancouver detached home buyer these days.

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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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@fixie guy: Because the state of the art sprinkler system extending to the balcony would have put this fire right out! 😛 I think somewhere in the article it stated that fires would be confined to just the unit because of the fire separation walls and other safety measures. As well, I think Rich Coleman(?) was on the news last night saying this fire is not an issue regarding fire safety in a completed building. Personally given the state of construction in BC, I wouldn't be surprised all these fire safety measure ends up being half-assed job that barely works and the building would still have burnt to the ground in the same spectacular fashion, except with lots of toxic chemicals fumes/particles from the fire safety measures added in for extra benefits. Also interesting the article stated that 2/3 of… Read more »
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7 years 7 months ago
McLovin
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Another terrible month for the Okangan Mainline. There is no way to spin this. They do mention the HAM by name to justify their terrible sales. Sales -32% YOY Sales -13% MOM Housing Market Tempers Going into Spring Kelowna, BC – The Central Zone of the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) reported April 2011 sales activity of all MLS® property types dipped compared to sales reported at this time last year and were softer than the busier than normal market seen earlier this year before tighter credit conditions came into effect. Inventory continues to decline as the market moves into more balanced conditions – down to 4,888 units compared to 5,309 in April 2010 and up slightly from last month (4,739) – with new listings falling by 24.25% over last year (to 1,031 from 1,361) and 7.78% from last… Read more »
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7 years 7 months ago
Mansur al-Hallaj
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Regarding the 'Silver bull is selling'.

The title contains precisely 50% of the news, because he sold the paper 'silver' and invested the proceeds into physical (miners, IIRC). This would sound more like 'Silver bull is buying silver' and make one question the value of paper.

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7 years 7 months ago
jesse
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Vancouver Sun blogger Jeff Lee: Vancouver's Cambie corridor plans: visionary or destructive? There’s a storm — heck, a maelstrom — brewing along the Cambie corridor over the city’s plans to dramatically alter and densify five neighbourhoods. … The city wants to change the form of development along Cambie between 16th Ave. and Marine Drive, making room for mid-rise and highrise towers at key points near Canada Line stations. Think of the streets of Barcelona, as architect and provocateur Michael Geller says, and you get the idea. Tall walls of buildings along broad boulevards. Barcelona… now THAT's more like it! It's certainly more realilstic than Robertson's "Vision" of overtaking the place of London, Paris, and New York on the world stage. But come on, city planners! This is nothing more than a pet city planner project. The real story is taking… Read more »
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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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@DaMann: It might also comes down to how much it would cost to fight the case and how much it would cost to settle. Unfortunately a lot of times justice and principle just isn't worth the cost to achieve it. A lot of lawsuits aren't filed with the intention to win but forcing the other party to settle as a way to avoid an even larger, pontentially ruinious, legal bill.

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7 years 7 months ago
jesse
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@McLovin: "Surging

consumer demand in Metro Vancouver has been driven primarily by immigrant investment"

LOL is it now? Do immigrants "drive" the market? Do locals no longer have any free will? Let's find the survey that outlines how many recent buyers are recent immigrants and how many are more established residents.

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7 years 7 months ago
Best place on meth
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Best place on meth
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They're at it again in the U.S., these people never learn.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/1126…

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7 years 7 months ago
pricedoutfornow
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@McLovin:

"In fact, we have seen a 25% decline in population growth

(migration) since 2009."

Yeah, I'd say. Lots of people have left the city once they stopped building condos, resort properties etc. Good time to rent, many people I know are having a hard time finding renters. Even the pubs are not doing well, from what I hear, since many construction workers have left. Sadly, I think the worst is yet to come.

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7 years 7 months ago
DaMann
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@space889:

I would think the COV has more money to spend on lawyers than the cash strapped, looking for a way out owners. All the more reason to believe the owners will be stuck.

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7 years 7 months ago
YLTN @ Work
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@McLovin:

I like how from a volume perspective sales have dropped 31% but when you look at it from a total value perspective it has dropped 38% (their numbers from your post, not mine).

What's the deal with the 25% decline in population growth too? I thought everyone wanted to move to Kelowna?

I can't wait until the freefall hits the lower mainland

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7 years 7 months ago
Ravishing Rick
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***NOTICE to users ***: Listen up you VCI users.

If you want to create a custom avatar for VCI account you have to set up an account at gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/

It takes only a few minutes, is free, and I encourage all of you real men to do so. All the rest of you sweat hogs aren't worth looking at anyway, at least that's what your woman tells me.

Hit the music.

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7 years 7 months ago
Alpha_Bear
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North Okanagan residential sales fell off a cliff:

Sales down 51% YOY

Sales drop 8% MOM, on top of a 33% drop the previous month.

So much for the market turning around this Spring.

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7 years 7 months ago
Best place on meth
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Best place on meth
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From Brazil:

"As its economy grows stronger and attracts more and more investments, it is also attracting more attention from international drug traffickers who launder the profits they make from drugs in Brazil," he said.

One way to hide drug profits is buying up real estate, Maierovitch said, and Brazil has become one of the Western Hemisphere's hottest property markets. Police said that a federal court ordered the seizure of the suspects' assets, which included 31 buildings, 15 luxury vehicles and three boats, with an estimated overall value of $16 million."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110506/ap_on_re_la_a…

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7 years 7 months ago
specialfx3000
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@Best place on meth:

Vancouver should now be called Brazil North.

(Hollywood North is so last century.)

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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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@DaMann: Well that maybe true but the question is which option costs more? Legal fight or settle? Granted I think this case dragging out the legal fight might be cheaper than settle but who knows.

Sometimes even if you can outlast your opponents in terms of legal budget, it doesn't also mean it's cheaper than settling even if you are in the right.

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7 years 7 months ago
registered
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@19 Alpha_Bear: The news today was talking about record rain falls last month and the playoffs keeping buyers away.

.

😉

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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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@Best place on meth: Actually I think Brazil should be called Vancouver South instead. I mean from a criminal's perspective Vancouver is much superior than Brazil. Here it's much less likely for government to do a wholesale seizure of assets like the article reported. When's the last time you hear police here seizing all or most of a crime lord's assets?

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7 years 7 months ago
space889
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@fixie guy: So after the playoff, sales will pick right up? Unless off course prospective buyers are too busy doing yard work, out enjoying our natural beauties, or find it too hot and sunny to go house shopping. :p

Looks like RE is learning from the retail industry on how to blame disappointing saless on external uncontrollable factors. 🙂

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7 years 7 months ago