Friday Free-for-all!
Is it Friday yet?
What’s happening out there?
Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!
Latest Comments
on Big banks facing home credit risk@mac: @condo watcher: Wait! I don't think that was explanation enough for you. By PAST, I mean a few years
on Big banks facing home credit risk@mAC HOW DO YOU GET A SALES TO LIST FIGURE OF 115%--are they selling stuff that's not even on the
on Big banks facing home credit riskHopefully this time it works. Copied from PaulB’s number http://www.laurenandpaul.ca Using good-format’s format. Date Listing Price(+-) Sold Inv Inv(+-) S/L(%)- on Big banks facing home credit risk Sorry for the previous post. I seem to have lost my PRE tag "touch".
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May 29th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
@Keeping An Eye On The Pimps:
>>>Yes, it’s in keeping with the Rich Asians I see, sharing a house with 15 distant relatives, 8 Hondas parked in the drive way, and dropping off the grand parents to deliver the Realtylink paper, and collecting empty pop cans once the courier bag is empty.<<<
And that pisses me off when they can't even leave the pop cans for the homeless.
These people really are like locusts.
May 29th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
#88,
put your shoebox where your mouth is! sell it now; or your new chick will leave you once your mortgage is more than your shoebox's value.
May 29th, 2011 at 11:51 am
The curse is working in Richmond, and it is making its way up Knight St.
Give me a few more weeks , I want to make some minor adjustments before I put into full force all over Metro Van.
The blip in West Van is to capture a few rich fools.
May 29th, 2011 at 10:15 am
You chumps – things continue to slow. Gradually, but the trend is now your friend.
If your like my buddy McLosin, you need all the friends you can get.
xoxox
Romeo Jordan
May 29th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Rather than letting the business cycle run its course, the quest for monetary policy became that of preventing recessions. Every time a crash or downturn loomed, the Fed, with the rest of the world's central bankers in tow, came riding over the hill to save the day by flooding the markets with cheap money – a phenomenon that became known as the "Greenspan put".
The Bank of England's astonishing escape from the financial crisis
Great reading regarding the BoE but an eye opener for bears all over, including Canadians in
the bleachers watching our own spectator sport called "easy money"……RTP
May 29th, 2011 at 9:13 am
@Sheesh
"One couple both have MBAs but have had trouble finding work here that lives up to their potential. A corporate recruiter told them staying in Vancouver will kill their careers; one has already found work in Toronto so we expect both to be gone in a few months.
Another couple, both with Masters degrees, is moving to Edmonton.
Another couple have met with an immigration lawyer about moving to the States.
We also know a Canadian/English couple that were going to move here after living in Japan for many years but, after a real estate tour of each city, chose London, England, as the more affordable option!"
Each to their own. I would rather rent in Vancouver than own in Edmonton, London or the States. It sounds like your friends all want to make lots of money. Why don't they use their MBAs to start a business in Vancouver instead of leaving? There's a healthy start-up scene here. Clearly though Vancouver is not an MBA type career city – which is one reason I like it here. People are not obsessed with their careers as they seemed to be in Toronto.
By the way, I'm from London originally. London is NOT more affordable than Vancouver (not just for housing but for things like eating out and transport, eg gas money and public transit) so that couple are in for a shock.
Having said that, Vancouver is ridiculously unaffordable for most people, which is why prices will clearly decline.
May 29th, 2011 at 6:56 am
@Anonymous: I was laid off but never evicted. I'm actually doing quite well now. Thanks for asking.
May 29th, 2011 at 6:28 am
@Patiently Waiting: I would hazard a guess that a lot of those apps were from students looking for summer work which often adds to a grimmer picture of the employment situation…
May 29th, 2011 at 5:57 am
#81,
then why hang around here for too long? even after your eviction and lay off?
Five Couples Lost To Vancouver Because Of RE Prices | Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 5:50 am
[...] at vancouvercondo.info May 28th, 2011 at 10:23 am- “In the past few weeks, the number of our friends who have either moved away, taken steps [...]
May 29th, 2011 at 4:54 am
@Patiently Waiting:
"he had 2000+ resumes for 16 positions. These jobs pay poverty wages and are temporary. Vancouver is soooooo fucked."
Yes, it's in keeping with the Rich Asians I see, sharing a house with 15 distant relatives, 8 Hondas parked in the drive way, and dropping off the grand parents to deliver the Realtylink paper, and collecting empty pop cans once the courier bag is empty.
May 29th, 2011 at 3:17 am
I was talking to a supervisor with the census. Hiring census takers was brutal. In his areas, he had 2000+ resumes for 16 positions. These jobs pay poverty wages and are temporary. Vancouver is soooooo fucked.
May 29th, 2011 at 1:58 am
@Anonymous:
OV Co-op market rates are hardly well considered if they're subsidized.
To live in the 3 bedrooms and under most standard Co-op affordability contracts, the family has to make between 76K and $90K/year. This puts them above the median wage – ie: they're richer than the majority of family earners in the city of Vancouver. The cheapest 2 bedroom is accessible to almost exactly at the median income.
Co-ops are supposed to be an alternative to buying. Like all RE in this crazy bubble, the co-op here is nothing approaching a "good deal".
I checked it out because we're looking at Co-ops right now: $2500/month and no in suite laundry, no yard, small rooms? Meh. At $2500 or less, there are 545 3-bed suites offered on Craigslist.
May 29th, 2011 at 12:52 am
@Anonymouse:
'cause if you can afford high-end furnishing like that you shouldn't qualify for subsidized housing – pay market rates like the rest of us!
May 29th, 2011 at 12:02 am
Popcorn time everyone!
Attached prices are down 2% YOY and flat over three years while detached are up 23% YOY and up 38% over three years.
http://agentwill.com/weekly-stats/
Also, the Fraser Valley is panicking while rich areas boom.
What is going on?
*munch munch*
May 28th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Don't the bulls keep saying that house prices are high because land prices are high?
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/05/arizona…
Why did the land price go down so much? Have they started making more? What is the cause and what is the effect?
May 28th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
@Keeping An Eye On The Pimps:
Wrong bud, she said she was his girlfriend, not his wife.
I was at the stag too, it was funny how she described Rick as too sensitive.
May 28th, 2011 at 6:57 am
"Pope can you please ban Ravishing Rick? He is now killing the blog with his sexist, racist, anti-gay BS just like RealPaul did. He is adding nothing but noise. "
McLovin:
Ravishing is harmless, here is an example of out of touch he is:
" want their plane to make a crash landing directly into bob rennie’s vagina"
He thinks gay guys have a vagina, how dumb is that?
He probably thinks you can become gay if you drink from the same glass as a gay person.
Most of the things he says originate from insecurities. At least that's his wife explained it last night at the stag.
May 28th, 2011 at 6:06 am
Re: Spain – We never had anything close to that overbuilding. The closest example would be Kelowna where prices are down 20%+ from the top.
May 28th, 2011 at 5:51 am
The collapse of Spain's booming housing market has left unfinished, unoccupied towns across the country.
Each failed development represents a loss for the banking sector, which admits to $240 billion of problematic exposure and is probably exposed to more. As home prices keep falling and unemployment soars, banks will face further writedowns.
<a href="http://www.financialpost.com/news/Shocking+satellite+images+Spain+ghost+towns/4851210/story.html" rel="nofollow">Shocking satellite images of Spain's ghost towns
May 28th, 2011 at 4:11 am
@McLovin
I may be sexist… but I am not racist or anti gay
I better idea would be to read what I say and if you don't like it vote it down.
What do you think Pope?
Hit the music!
May 28th, 2011 at 4:06 am
@Patiently Waiting:
From what I here in my circles HAM is huge part of it. People think that "if I'm not a rich guy from China, I can't make it in this City." Why would you stay in a place like that?
May 28th, 2011 at 4:04 am
@Fast:
Salaries are also really low here. All in all, it is just a bad deal.
May 28th, 2011 at 3:39 am
@Sheesh:
I don't get it. What is wrong with staying and renting. Rents aren't expensive here. If you feel the need to buy property as an investment, buy it elsewhere and rent it out.
May 28th, 2011 at 3:21 am
Pope can you please ban Ravishing Rick? He is now killing the blog with his sexist, racist, anti-gay BS just like RealPaul did. He is adding nothing but noise.
Everyone can do their part. Immediately vote down anything he says without reading it. Once his comments start to disappear he'll give up and go to some white is right website.
May 28th, 2011 at 3:20 am
Below is Landcor's quote:
"They found 74 per cent or 122 out of the 164 homes sold in 2010 above the "luxury" threshold ($3 million for houses on Vancouver's west side and $2 million for condos in Richmond) were bought by buyers who fit the mainland China profile.
That was a jump from 2009, when 68 per cent of luxury homes (49 out of 72) in the two areas were matched to likely Chinese buyers.
In 2008, 46 per cent or 32 out of 69 sales fit the profile."
Simplifying things, 122 luxury homes in 2010 although a big increase as compared to 2009 does not signify that the asians have invaded the world. Some asian owners moved up to the higher threshold of luxury prices by virtue of the increase in price in 2010 without much reasoning. For god sakes, we have about 3 million people? in BC and only 122 ham owners buying 122 luxury homes. We get more than 122 sales in one day. The numbers seem to indicate that sustantial HAM investors coming in to Vancouver may be a farce theory.
Another thing to look at is that Landcor is a company that makes money by doing property assessments. It is questionable whether their research is objective. After all, their main goal is to attract buyers out there who depends on their service. That's their bread and butter.
May 28th, 2011 at 3:02 am
Vancouver sucks…
Not only do I want the Canucks to lose in the finals in four straight games, I want their plane to make a crash landing directly into bob rennie's vagina when they fly back to shit hole Vancouver
Hit the music!
May 28th, 2011 at 2:59 am
Yes the brain drain of the early 90s starts again!
Fueled with a high currency and good educations the best and brightest can move down to California – live like a king, and get jobs that pay twice or more what they make in Vancouver.
A friend of mine has an MBA from UBC, after completing it he changed jobs and industries. He is a smart guy, scored in the 95th percentile on his GMAT, and has an undergraduate degree from UBC in physics. He was shocked that the first salary offer was actually $7,000 lower than his current government employee salary (not to mention it didn't have any pension and benefits). His expectations were already low since he was making a career change and thought that at worst he would make the same amount as his current job. He was told by the company making the offer, "We really want you, but you are making a career change and there are a lot of people who would love to get this job for the experience". He tells me, that his counterparts in Toronto doing the same job were making twice his salary. Unfortunately, there really weren't any other jobs in the same area coming up in Vancouver. He took the job and has been looking elsewhere ever since.
He couldn't move easily either because of his family and personal situation, however, he is very vocal about what took place and tells every young person he meets to move out of Vancouver as soon as possible. He says that he has actually had a negative return on his education for staying in Vancouver!
Hit that music!
May 28th, 2011 at 2:47 am
@Sheesh: Why are they suddenly leaving now? Does this have to do with all the HAM rumours? I have to wonder if the real estate industry is doing itself long-term damage by over-reporting HAM. People just give up and move away
May 28th, 2011 at 2:23 am
In the past few weeks, the number of our friends who have either moved away, taken steps toward moving or expressed interest in leaving Vancouver has been truly alarming. They are all highly educated professionals and the ridiculous cost of living in Vancouver relative to the professional salaries and opportunities available have them suddenly running for the hills.
I don't know if it is coincidence or if this is a sign of a larger trend, but I feel like we have all waited a really long time for things to get better here and now, in our 30s to early 40s, we are tired of sitting around waiting for a piece of the pie to come our way.
One couple both have MBAs but have had trouble finding work here that lives up to their potential. A corporate recruiter told them staying in Vancouver will kill their careers; one has already found work in Toronto so we expect both to be gone in a few months.
Another couple, both with Masters degrees, is moving to Edmonton. The husband found a job there and they have just put in an offer on a house. They can buy a beautiful house for grown-ups there for the same monthly costs as renting a dark, dank one-bedroom in the West End.
Another couple have met with an immigration lawyer about moving to the States. They can sell their place here and, with the equity, buy a sweet little house in a trendy neigbourhood in Portland for $300,000.
We also know a Canadian/English couple that were going to move here after living in Japan for many years but, after a real estate tour of each city, chose London, England, as the more affordable option!
The last couple that wants to leave is us! Unfortunately, our jobs are keeping us in Vancouver for now. But we have a young son and just don't see Vancouver as a place where we can raise a family, save for retirement and have anything left over to buy a place.
All of us, by the way, would pick Vancouver as their first choice. It just seems like the city doesn't want us. At this rate I really have to wonder what kind of place this will be in five or ten years. Can money launderers, speculators and offshore investors really make Vancouver "The Best Place on Earth?"
There are lots of nice places to live in this world; looks like a lot of us that didn't get in on the ground floor are setting off to find another one.
May 28th, 2011 at 2:15 am
Cut the music!
#57 must read – <– post on Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive
See the real problem is the Government salaries – fat lazy government workers, overpaid and under productive in comparison to the rest of the world. All aspects of public funded employees VPD officers after three years make over $75k + pension + over time.
In other words, with little to no education they make more than most educated professionals.
Highest paid crown corp executive is BC ferries president: He claims he turned around a the company — HE has a MONOPOLY, fees doubled over the last few years, and after taking out the government subsidy and "other income" they don't even make money. http://www.sedar.com/DisplayCompanyDocuments.do?l…
This is why Vancouver and BC suck.
Zero productivity, No Economy, Fat Government
May 28th, 2011 at 1:27 am
@bleh:
"From mainland China" means just that. They could be in China right now or have been in Canada for 50 years. It has nothing to do with the buyer's residency status in Canada or citizenship.
I don't know if Landcor (or whoever got them to do the survey) or the reporter is trying to confuse the issue of offshore buyers with local buyers of Chinese origin, but don't fall for it.
May 28th, 2011 at 1:17 am
@Patiently Waiting: The Landcor methodology is highly questionable.
"Landcor looked at transactions and flagged buyers with pure Chinese names who have spellings typical in the People's Republic of China, filtering out those with Westernized first names as well as non-Chinese names."
It's highly questionable because I just sold my Dunbar house to someone with a pure Chinese name for millions more than I paid. If he is from mainland China at all, he has been here for many years. He has built many other houses in my neighborhood since 2004 or earlier. He is a builder who lives in South Granville and is mortgaged to the hilt.
May 27th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
@Patiently Waiting:
Typical BC hypocrisy. People were all gung ho for the biggest spendfest on the planet last year and are now crying the blues when the bills come in.
A couple of points – the large raise in municipal wages in the latest contracts was of course buying off the unions to avoid a strike during the Olympics. Also the guy lives in Richmond, which I think was the second biggest spender (maybe the first per capita) on Olympic facilities of any municipality.
The article also didn't mention that our hard pressed pensioner can defer his property taxes indefinitely at a very very low rate.
May 27th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Richmond homoaners discover the downside of increasing property values:
http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/Homeowners+res…
May 27th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Realtards are some of the stupidest of stupid people out there. They add zero value and have some of the worst training and screening of any "professional" body. In addition, most realtards have only a high school education yet act like they were trained in the London School of Economics. I laugh when I see one that says BSc behind their name because there is still no value added.
- What was point here? Well, if that ignorant realtard actually looked at the numbers in real terms there would be another story to tell. They would probably say something like, "It is real terms, it is real estate after all, how much more real can you get?"
May 27th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Landcor study finds high levels of Mainland Chinese buying Vancouver luxury homes and BC resources, but warns of painful downside when this trend reverses.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/tri_city_maple_ridge/m…
May 27th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Be prepared for a slight downturn, says the realtard, but…
"Since 1977, when they began keeping track, there isn’t any time frame in which you would have lost money if you’d bought a house in Greater Vancouver and kept it for 10 years. Not bad."
Read more: http://www.vancourier.com/Vancouver+real+estate+b…
Tell that to someone who bought in 1981
and sold in 1991.
May 27th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
@observer: Like Chinese cars, the Chinese frauds get a lot of things right. But overall they still fall short by American standards. Not exactly "god's work". At least they're learning quickly, but I wonder if anyone can really surpass the Americans here.
I mean, the US printed X trillion dollars, where nobody can even fathom what X is, and there are still people saving those dollars and lending to the US government at 1%. This is while everybody down to the man in the street talks about how the US is insolvent. Now THAT is a fraud.
May 27th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Stoner thought of the day: dude, if we win the Stanley Cup, we should hide it in Stanley Park and refuse to give it back.
May 27th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
High & Low Finance
The Audacity of Chinese Frauds
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/business/27norr…