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Friday Free-for-all!

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It’s that time of the week again! Lets do our regular end of the week news round-up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend. Here are a few recent stories to kick things off:

–Olympic Village still losing money for everyone who touches it
–You can’t get out of debt by going into more debt?
–How long can home prices rise?
–Boomers still dealing with mortgages as retirement looms
–Top ten least expensive cities for house prices
–Is CMHC in worse shape than Fannie May?
–Canada the next domino to fall?
–Canada bubble commentary infographic
–Burt Reynolds facing foreclosure
–Unwanted condos blow up real good
–Realtors in cars

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

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[…] the developers. As I said I’ve given up and can’t wait to get my family out of here.” – chopper at vancouvercondo.info 21 Aug 2011 6:44pm Share:TwitterFacebookRedditStumbleUponDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This […]

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joseph

Atnj36 http://wnbUj5n0mXqpcvm27Hms.biz

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pipewrench

http://macronomy.blogspot.com/2011/08/markets-upd…

Nomura to add:

"Access to USD CP funding for international banks continue to deteriorate. Thursday's Fed data on outstanding commercial paper showed a further decline, indicating that some European banks are having difficulty rolling paper."

a very good read if you want to get an idea on the problem overseas. It is looking like 2008. We are not there yet and it can be fixed.

All of this was caused by bad mortgages passed off to foreign buyers and that cannot be cleared off books. Housing bubbles are nightmares.

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pipewrench

http://pragcap.com/cds-market-to-euro-banks-this-…

google the bank stocks in the graph and you should understand that if this is not contained it could get ugly. This is not doom but it is ugly.

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patriotz

@CanuckDownUnder:

I own gold producers, not gold.

People who buy gold only make money from each other, but gold producers make money from people who buy gold.

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ReadyToPop

In my neighborhood teardowns, or what developers consider teardowns sell within days for well over $1.6 million. Having said this, developed houses selling in the $3 to $4 million range are taking a lot longer to sell than they used to. Anyways, it seems that the market in this area is driven by the upper end, not the lower end.

Has your neighborhood ever been "affordable"? As in, middle class affordable? Even 500k to 600k is a lot of money in normal times, but for the moment, many in this town are borrowing like they're the next Donald Trump. Can't say I blame you though…this town seriously sucks to bring up a family in, and in my opinion is a petri dish of failed policy in so many ways.

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Best place on meth

Ok everyone, all this talk about gold is pissing people off so let's not mention it again until it hits $2000.

The 3 days rest will do us good.

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Anonymouse

@chopper:

Why leave? Are you unhappy with the rent you pay? What's forcing you to buy?

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VultureBoy

Setting aside the question as to the intrinsic value of gold (which is enough of a reason for me to avoid it), it is clear that gold mining is a nasty business. At least most other metals have some useful application.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-real…

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chopper

@Anonymouse: Sorry Anonymouse – #150 was me. I agree, would people please stop talking about gold. I don't disagree with your perception of things. Who's to say the market will ever correct? I keep hoping it will but I've finally given up and am in the process of making plans to leave Vancouver once and for all. Fuck this place. In my neighborhood teardowns, or what developers consider teardowns sell within days for well over $1.6 million. Having said this, developed houses selling in the $3 to $4 million range are taking a lot longer to sell than they used to. Anyways, it seems that the market in this area is driven by the upper end, not the lower end. Developers calculate what they can sell the finished product for and then calculate their max price for a teardown based… Read more »

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CanuckDownUnder

@patriotz:

We get it. Holding any gold at any time is never a good idea.

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ReadyToPop

patriotz Says:

August 21st, 2011 at 5:24 pm

The (not pretty) picture

I remember that…I also remember what happened to house prices too. Alas…but the puppies think this is all a new paradigm and it won't happen again 😉

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CanuckDownUnder

They had the finale of this reality renovation show last night in Australia. I didn't watch any of it but the results were rather embarrassing, 3 out of the 4 houses failed to sell at auction:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/…

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patriotz

@Anonymous:

You want a picture, you've got a picture:

http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_g…

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Anonymous

@patriotz:

"Um I just showed that it is."

No you made a statement that it is. You didn't "show" anything.

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Anonymous

@Best place on meth: "Garth Turner feels the need to rebut Zero Hedge’s piece on Canadian banks while simultaneously dismissing him" Yes his reasoning is this: "Through CMHC, the banks are protected against major losses because everyone with less than a 20% down payment (which is just about all buyers these days) is forced to purchase mortgage insurance." The part Garth misses is those same people who will default on the CMHC insured mortgages will first stop paying unsecured lines of credit, credit card debt and car loans which the bank will eat. I would assume there will be a cost to the banks getting their money back from CMHC as well once the default happens. What about construction mortgages that will default if housing prices crash as he predicts? Then there will be those who did put down 20%… Read more »

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patriotz

@Anonymous:

“It sure wasn’t (a safe haven) during the recession of the early 80′s, which was the worst downturn in BC since the 1930′s.”

Um gold is not correlated with the BC economy.

Um I just showed that it is.

What do you think "correlated" means?

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patriotz

@Anonymous:

When the Euro falls apart what do you think people will do with their money?

The Euro is going to be around as long as France and Germany want it. As for places like Greece, what money?

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Anonymouse

@Anonymous: What happens in spring 2013?

Nothing in particular, but my gut feeling is we've still got at least 2 strong springs to go. There's certainly nothing remarkable happening right now, evidenced by the fact you're all talking about gold instead of RE 🙂

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Devore

@pipewrench:

Great , stick with your GIC’s and keep secured. That is why the world is rushing headfirst into a safe storage of wealth. I hope you enjoy the returns.

Bond prices detect your sarcasm.

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nuxfan

"What happens in spring 2013?"

The US has maintained they'll hold their rates at near-zero until mid-2013. By spring we'll have a good idea as to what their intentions will be for either raising or not – each option will have a host of consequences that go along with them.

The new US president will also have just finished decorating the White House and will be getting down to business. Depending on who is there, it could make for some interesting policy shifts.

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nuxfan

"What happens in spring 2013?"

The US has maintained they'll hold their rates at near-zero until mid-2013.

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Anonymous

@Anonymouse: I can’t see anything interesting happening in the Vancouver market until after spring 2013. That’s my prediction.

What happens in spring 2013?

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Crash

I remember when Kits wasn't "trendy" but just a place to live for the average Joe. I guess I'm showing my age.

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