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Friday Free-for-all!

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It’s the end of the week again, let’s do our regular weekend news round up and open topic discussion thread! Here are a few links to kick off the chat:

–No housing bubble in Vancouver
–Canada’s northern tiger looks very much like a bubble
–Screw the scenery, I need to live
–Price changes vary sharply around BC
–Olympic village lures lookers with freebies
–Vancouver BC the 3rd worst dressed city in the world?
–CREA: housing market on solid footing
–Household debt leaves little room to maneuver
–Upbeat hiring climate predicted
–Gen X stymied by Boomers keeping jobs
–

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

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george
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Canada get ready for the second great depression

http://www.bluecanada.ca/topic/19209-canada-get-r…

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7 years 9 months ago
pipewrench
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George you forgot to mention,

blue Canada is a conservative website with sun media. Take anything that is said with a grain of salt.

http://www.bloggingtories.ca/forums/topic9876.htm…

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7 years 9 months ago
patriotz
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Investors are prepared to buy houses they will rent out at a loss, just because they think prices will keep rising—the very definition of a financial bubble.

http://www.economist.com/node/4079027

There isn't any more to it than that, and all the tap dancing by the cheerleaders is just an attempt to distract us from it.

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7 years 9 months ago
registered
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3 patriotz Says: …and all the tap dancing by the cheerleaders…

Case in point from the Macleans article:

"According to Vancouver condo king Bob Rennie, one of the city’s best-known real estate brokers, the average selling price for an apartment last year was a more reasonable $313,000 (excluding high-end properties in the top one-fifth of the market)."

Buyers willing to forgo nebulous concepts like quality and value will find even greater rewards by excluding the top 2/5 of the market.

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7 years 9 months ago
Keeping An Eye On Th
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"According to the report's author economist Brian Yu, low interest rates that show no sign of rising quickly and the limited supply of land will keep values rising – all familiar arguments."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/st…

Yes , all famiLIAR, arguments, but I'm not buying unless Bill Slut and Simi Sara confirm that Brian is telling us the truth.

Heck, Brian may have found his economics degree, in a cracker jack box, but his true credentials are in marketing.

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7 years 9 months ago
vreaa
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“I landed a job in Seattle working for Microsoft and we will be moving there November 1.”

http://wp.me/pcq1o-2W9

If everybody felt like this guy, the Seattle bubble would reinflate…

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7 years 9 months ago
patriotz
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A $1 luxury home in Oakville, Ont. doesn’t sell

Real estate agent Vasia Argirls said the house was originally listed for $1.088 million before the owners dropped the price to a buck…

Argiris said neighbours who attended the open house criticized the home's decor and the original asking price ($1.088 million), which they said was about $500,000 more than comparable homes in the area.

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7 years 9 months ago
Patiently Waiting
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A family of bears

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/pml/rew/2601513…

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7 years 9 months ago
Patiently Waiting
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Hippy tenants go to arbitration to keep their garden

http://www.straight.com/article-458206/vancouver/…

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7 years 9 months ago
Bubba
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South Edmonton Common

http://www.southedmontoncommon.com/maps/

320 acres of Big Box Shopping.

Prediction…Big Boxes will fold , run their course, as has buyers credit.

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7 years 9 months ago
Bubba
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I note previously about a party that is a property manager for an established Vancouver Landlord.

Much of their property is single storey circa 1930's etc., and along the Cambie corridor

The rent they charge is in the range of $ 26/ sq ft triple net.

Newly constructed commercial space is asking $65/ sq ft triple net.

The property taxes are coming close to what the annnual rent would be…so I asked him " then what "?

He said it makes no sense anymore , hence they will have to sell….which apparently is THE agenda to free up land for more residential.

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7 years 9 months ago
Li Kai Shing
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41st and Granville update:

National Enquirer investigating rumours that contamination due to directional drilling by cheap basturd West Side homeowners, who are then siphoning gas to power BMW's, Mercedes, Lexus etc.

These same plicks feel they are owed much Yuan for their RE !!!!

Too stupid to siphon the old fashioned way..this is a course taught in Whalley- Newton as Life Skills !

I keep you posted

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7 years 9 months ago
VMD
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[Bribery alleged by P.E.I. immigrant program workers re: Immigrant Investor Program] Sept 16, 2011 – CBC News "Three former provincial government workers held a news conference Friday morning to expose allegations of bribery and fraud within P.E.I.'s immigrant investor program. They claim senior bureaucrats in the Liberal government exerted pressure on them to approve immigrant applications that should never have been accepted. Cora Plourd said she would decline an application one day and then the next day either the immigrant application was approved, or she says she was pressured into approving them. Reporters asked Plourd specifically who pressured her. She wouldn't name names, but did point generally to the premier's office as the place where the pressure originated. Svetlana Tenetko said she was part of a team of PNP workers who went to Hong Kong to work through immigrant applications.… Read more »
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7 years 9 months ago
teddy bear
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Can't believe the comments in the NO Bubble article. Apparently the only time house prices went down was because of the NDP. And if you think prices will go down you are a gloom and doomer. Gee what rocket scientists wrote these comments.

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7 years 9 months ago
Best place on meth
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@VMD:

Chinese bribing their way into Canada under the Immigrant Investor program?

This is shocking, unbelievable.

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7 years 9 months ago
registered
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@13 VMD: The more things change:

http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/corruption-an… http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20040327/wfive_im…

Corruption of the immigration system should be treated with the same severity reserved for treason.

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7 years 9 months ago
Laibach
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@Keeping An Eye On The Pimps:

Heck, Brian may have found his economics degree, in a cracker jack box, but his true credentials are in marketing.

Economist Expert Brian Yu holds degree from prestigious Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TJUFE). Tianjin University is equivalent to Harvard, so I would assume he knows what he is talking about. Same counts for Fannie Fong, another superb expert.

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7 years 9 months ago
TNT
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"Chinese bribing their way into Canada under the Immigrant Investor program?"

or you could look this way "Canadian officials are corrupted to the bone"

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7 years 9 months ago
Best place on meth
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@TNT:

That's why the entire program should be shut down immediately.

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7 years 9 months ago
gordholio
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#14, teddy bear: Don't know which comments you're reading, but I see that the vast majority (including mine) are not only in agreement with the existence of a bubble, but angry – damned angry – that we're continuing to be fed "no bubble" bullshit by credit union "economists."

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7 years 9 months ago
gordholio
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I'm interested – what's the current "situation" for everyone else here? Do you rent? Do you own? Have you *ever* owned? Do you desperately want to own? I'm a renter, having sold my house last year. At first, I couldn't wait for prices to crash, hellishly, so I could buy back in. But now, having found a good rental home and a great landlord, and finally coming to terms with the incredible amount of money that home ownership cost me over the years, I'm totally happy to remain a renter. I mentioned to a Globe and Mail reporter a few weeks back that it would take a correction of 50% to convince me to buy back in. But honestly, I don't even know if I'd take the plunge at *that* point. Of course, I'm lucky. I bought when the prices… Read more »
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7 years 9 months ago
Li Kai Shing
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Truly shocking…UNbeleivable.

I got into Canada honestly….won it in a Mah Jong game

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7 years 9 months ago
patriotz
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@teddy bear:

"Can’t believe the comments in the NO Bubble article. Apparently the only time house prices went down was because of the NDP."

The massive bust of the early 80's (35% nominal, 50% real) was of course under the Socred government of Bill Bennett.

RE prices went up until Dave Barrett's government, up about 50% under Harcourt, and down 15% under Clark (net positive 1991-2001)..

But since when did reality have anything to do with political discourse in BC?

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7 years 9 months ago
Freeman
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“Chinese bribing their way into Canada under the Immigrant Investor program?” or you could look this way “Canadian officials are corrupted to the bone” ________ Or you could look at it that both the Chinese and Canadian immigration officials are corrupt to the bone. Of course, it was Canadian immigration officials that blew the whistle in PEI. I don't see too many whistle blower stories in China (of course, they would probably be imprisoned). Only the Maritimers had the common sense and moral fortitude to expose the fraud. Amazing how common sense prevails more in some Canadian jurisdictions that others. Here in Vancouver, those same whistle blowing officials would probably have an angry mob protesting them or the deportation of one of the fraudulently let in immigrants (anyone remember the illegal shut down of the airport traffic because the East… Read more »
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7 years 9 months ago
patriotz
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@patriotz:

That should be house prices went up under Barrett – remember general inflation was very high in the early 70's.

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7 years 9 months ago