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Friday Free-for-all

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183 Comments

Yessiree, it’s the end of another week. Let’s do our regular weekend news round up and open topic discussion thread! Here are a few stories to kick off the chat:

–Dramatic drop in Richmond new condo sales
–No post-Olympic tourist bump for BC
–58% of BC not saving for a rainy day
–Nearly half of Flagship for sale?
–Teranet index shows big bump for prices last August
–Revised real estate chart book
–Some appraisers grumble about Zoocasa estimates
–More protests over Chinese developer price drops
–US economy expanded at fastest pace in a year
–

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

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Anonymous

@Best place on meth: …….

A city has every right to get involved in rentals. …..

Why?

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Call em as I see em

@fixie guy:

"legislation covering just the monitor, keyboard, desk, chair, lights and air around them could ever express those sentiments without irony.

But heavens to Betsy, including essential shelter is one step too far!"

Shelter is already regulated much more than those things you mention. Every building in North America has building codes that must be met to be occupied.

Government does not tell you what you should do with your chair or keyboard. Should they come in and force you to use that chair in storage because there is a chair shortage?

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Call em as I see em

@patriotz:

"Well said, but you forget the biggest government interference ever in the technology market – the development of the Internet."

That is a great example. The government actually does very little regulation of the internet which makes it very useful. Compare the internet to highly regulated media such as the radio or TV.

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patriotz

@fixie guy:

"Makes me laugh every time I read this online."

Well said, but you forget the biggest government interference ever in the technology market – the development of the Internet.

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Devore

@Best place on meth: It was government in the first place that created the conditions that make it more profitable for developers or property owners to leave their properties vacant, rather than renting them out. Now we want government to make it better again. Will they undo the bad policy, or will they layer on more arcane and confusing regulations on top, which will cause another set of problems somewhere else down the road?

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Best place on meth

@Troll:

Leaving entire buildings vacant is detrimental to the health, safety and vibrancy of neighborhoods, which the city has and should have an interest in.

But it's a great opportunity for squatters to take over a neighborhood so that's a plus.

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Makaya

Not sure if you guys have seens this article on BNN: "Canada's house of cards?"
http://www.bnn.ca/News/2011/10/28/Canadas-house-o…

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Call em as I see em

"every right to ask government to adopt policies that lead to sensible outcomes in the housing market."

True, but there always seems to be unintended consequences when government gets involved. Most people would think lowing interest rates would be a good thing for affordability but we have seen what that did. Now most people want interest rates to rise so houses become more affordable.

Those buildings in NY are probably empty because government does not allow building owners to easily evict tenants. This reduces flexibly on the owners part if they wanted to redevelop or sell as sell as condos so they leave the places empty reducing rental stock.

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fixie guy

169 space889 Says: "If you don’t want government interference …"

Makes me laugh every time I read this online. No one with the slightest inkling about the layers of legislation covering just the monitor, keyboard, desk, chair, lights and air around them could ever express those sentiments without irony.

But heavens to Betsy, including essential shelter is one step too far!

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Troll

@Best place on meth:

A city has every right to get involved in rentals.

Why?

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Anonymouse

@Best place on meth:

"A city has every right to get involved in rentals."

If the buildings are currently empty, and nobody is renting, then what does it have to do with the rental market?

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Vulture Fun

@Duh:

Asking questions is no defence against liars.

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Best place on meth

@space889:

By your logic, car sales and car rentals are all part of the same market.

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patriotz

@space889:

"f you don’t want government interference then it should stay out of all areas associated with housing"

That essentially means you wouldn't have any government, period. Every government that has ever existed has been involved in RE.

As I said given that we do have government (that we pay for of course) and its policies affect housing we have every right to ask government to adopt policies that lead to sensible outcomes in the housing market.

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space889

@Best place on meth: Rental market is still part of the overall housing market. If you don't want government interference then it should stay out of all areas associated with housing. What you are really saying is I want government interference in areas I approve of with policies I approve of. Anything I don't agree with is bad and government should butt out.

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Best place on meth

@Anonymous:

>>>By “it should be illegal” do you mean in this instance you want to see government interference in the housing market?<<<

This isn't the housing market, it's the rental market.

A city has every right to get involved in rentals.

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Duh

@Vulture Fun:

"Some might remember the fun I had yesterday, discovering that someone was already living in the place I was about to rent. Today, the same thing happened…we were not pleased with this development and the way it was not mentioned in the ad."

Ask a couple of questions before viewing the place. I would think you would have figured that out the first time.

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Anonymous

@R:

Thanks a lot!

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fixie guy

152 rp1 Says: "What if the prime rate became 0.25%?…Charge big fees to depositors."

Where do banks get the money to lend?

Punish and chase away prime source of liquidity.

Make large loans on risky assets at historically low margins.

Profit?

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patriotz

@Anonymous:

"you want to see government interference in the housing market?"

The government always interferes massively in all housing markets through tax codes (property and income), mortgage financing, zoning, tenancy regulations etc. There are also large externalities between owners and other owners and their tenants as the NYT article points out.

If there are outcomes such as empty suites in viable rental markets, it's entirely appropriate for government to do something about it.

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Vulture Fun

There are plenty of restrictions on renters. No smoking, no pets, no parties are very common ones if you ever look at CL. To add to the fun, the British Columbia Apartment Owners and Managers Association (BCAOMA) has an application which requests your SIN (a privacy commission no-no), and your credit card number (not required for credit check). Why would someone sign something like that? Desperation, competition, or a combination of both. You can make a stink about it if you want, cross it out on the application, tell the landlord that a SIN shouldn't be used like that, but do you think the landlord will then choose your application from the pile? Anyone who thinks it's easy looking for a place these days has not tried it. I won't even get into the idiot landlords and agents who were… Read more »

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R

Reddit comments on the going-going-gone article:
http://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/l9oko/…

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vreaa

@Troll: Yeah, agreed, that bit caught our eye, too… we already have it teed up for headline… absolutely jaw-dropping. Note the way her massively leverage buy is framed as prudence.

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Troll

http://www.theprovince.com/business/moneywise/Ave…

The best part…

Fores-Pimentel, 31, became caught in the debt trap but freed herself by curtailing spending and cutting up her credit cards. She moved back with her kids to her parents’ house earlier this year and has paid off everything she owed.

By living frugally, Fores­Pimentel expects to have enough saved to make a down payment on her own home in about 18 months.

“You have to change your lifestyle and it’s really difficult,” she says. “But there is such a sense of freedom in being debt-free.”

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Giorgio

@Anonymous:

Speaking of inventory, how's your wife doing lately?

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