Business Confidence dips again, now at 3 year low

It’s not just Vancouver house sales that are heading down.

Business confidence in Canada dipped for a fourth month in a row and is now at a 3 year low.

This according to a survey from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The last time it was lower was in July of 2009, when it stood at 58.6.

CFIB chief economist Ted Mallett says the index’s current position in relation to gross domestic product puts it very close to the zero-growth mark, suggesting Canada’s economy is nearing a standstill.

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reported the economy had grown a disappointing 0.1 per cent in May, leaving the pace of the recovery at slightly below two per cent on an annualized basis.

The CFIB says confidence declined in July even in resource-rich provinces like Alberta, which saw a drop of three points to 70.3.

So taking out a home equity loan to fund your underperforming small business?  Maybe not such a good idea unless the revenue is there.

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bby

Next time we can foresee an REBGV press release, we should track down Tsur and photo-bomb these news reports. Placards, shouting insults, and such. Make it a news item about a bear flash mob, and not his dumbass opinion. It would be awesome.

Krusty the Clown

Just watched CTV news. Economist from SFU, Andrey Pavlov, actually stated assertively that this was a crash. Actually used the the word “crash”. So there are some folks out there willing to put themselves on the line.

Tsur was on there too doing his usualy wishy-washy routine. Balls firmly tucked inside his body cavity.

SFU > UBC?

Proud and extremely rich Chinese home owners

@gokou3:

Don’t worry there are Chinese for the metrotown pre-sale.We will line up three days before the pre-sale day and by 12 noon all units will be gone.Chinese like metrotown.

piklishi

@Chabar:

Our Premier is trying to boost BC’s economy by speeding tax payer money like crazy. I want my money back for my downpayment in 2013.

piklishi

@ScubaSteve:
All it takes is 1 condo unit in an entire building to drag prices down.

All it takes is 1 building in the entire neighborhood to drag prices down.

All it takes is Richmond in the entire Mainland to drag all prices down.

Let the party begin.

Chabar

Local philosophy, spend like a crazy while you can, especially if the others foot the bill.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/02/christy-clark-credit-card-bill_n_1733237.html?utm_hp_ref=canada

Anonymous

realtors are wanting lower prices even more than we do. every realtor that I know that has a listing are trying to convince the sellers to come down.

sick of wasting their time on overpriced 1 bedroom crappy apartments priced at close to $400,000

Krusty the Clown

@pricedoutfornow: So they carry on, month after month, shelling out $$ to cover the rental loss…will this happen here? I think so… It already has happened here. Many areas in the lower mainland still have lower condo prices than from 2007/2008 (think tri-cities area etc) where people are either underwater or cash flow negative. But here’s the thing: 1. The MSM never reports these stories. They only report the bogus “above asking” sales fed to them by realtor associations. 2. The investors who are negative never “brag” about their investment failures around the watercooler and at backyard BBQs. So all we ever hear in the media and anecedotally are the “success” stories. Add to that that most people overstate their gains (“I made $100k”, conveniently ignoring realtor fees, special assessments, renovations etc.) and everyone is left with the perception that… Read more »

ScubaSteve

@HAM Solo:

Exactly. Realtors only care about three things: SALES, SALES and SALES. Without sales, there is no commission. Prices don’t matter to realtors because all the fees are front loaded anyways. 2 sales @ 500k generates more commission than 1 sale @ $1m. So the realtors will do the work now… convincing their clients to lower prices in order to sell. It will cascade down from there. All it takes is 1 condo unit in an entire building to drag prices down.

HAM Solo

@ BPOM

10,000 realtors / 98 commissions (49 buying, 49 selling) = 101 days per realtor per commission

Time for the Realturds to start working on their clients to start dropping prices.

Best place on meth

Is it just my neighborhood or does the whole city smell awful today?

I think the real estate board and it’s 10,000 agents just shit themselves.

Bo Xilai

@kabloona:

Just remember with Tsur… He who pays the piper calls the tune…

Somerville holds the ONNI Chair of Real Estate Development at the Faculty of Real Estate, Mortgage Securitization and Spot Welding at the UBC.

Bear=loser

Guess some August sales got “pulled forward” into June too! 49 sales today!! Bwhahaha!! My prediction…. Concern changes to full-on panic come October. Git’ yur popcorn… The show has started!!

VHB
Aug-2012	
Total days	22
Days elapsed so far	2
Weekends / holidays	0
Days missing	0
Days remaining	20
7 Calendar Day Moving Average: Sales	75
7 Calendar Day Moving Average: Listings	196
SALES	
Sales so far	110
Projection for rest of month (using 7day MA)	1500
Projected month end total	1610
NEW LISTINGS	
Listings so far	440
Projection for rest of month (using 7day MA)	3924
Projected month end total	4364
Sell-list so far	25.0%
Projected month-end sell-list	36.9%
MONTHS OF INVENTORY	
Inventory as of August 1, 2012	18740
Current MoI at this sales pace	11.64

woah

Chabar

@paulb:

Still quite a number given the current prices and sentiment. There is still some cool-aid being served and fools are still coming to the party even the music stopped long time ago.

ScubaSteve

@paulb:

49 sales……

paulb

New Listings 182
Price Changes 114
Sold Listings 49
TI:18740

The REBGV stats release is posted on my website. http://www.paulboenisch.com

Burbs Boy

Tsur is useless. It is embarassing that the media chooses to use him as a talking head… can’t they find someone better? And Global, just another embarassment for British Columbia. Unfortunate that most people are too uninformed to be able to make this change. Not people’s fault I guess; everyone is so busy these days that there is no time for most to take the time to care, to inquire, to demand something better, and therefore they get rooked by those who would take advantage of them.

pricedoutfornow

@kabloona:

I love the economist on CTV who says there’s a bubble! yippee! Finally they say the “b” word! I think we’ll be seeing a whole lot more “experts” on the news who talk about the bubble as it becomes more obvious it’s popping. Now, where were these guys hiding for the past 5 years?

Anonymous
kabloona

@Absinthe:

Just finished watching the CTV News item. Professor at SFU is asked, are we in a crash, and he responds:

“We are *definitely* in a crash…..”

But then later in the piece, of course Tsur sez there’s no crash and the market is just “quivering”…..

WTF???

A-HA-HA-HA-HA!! Whatever the Real Estate Board is paying Tsur, it’s money well spent….

Absinthe

Tsur on CTV saying that it’s hard to predict who will blink first in this “buyers’ market” and that we’ll see either dropping prices or return of demand. Maaaan. A true believer to the end.

Anonymous

every article

“despite the sharp drop in the number of home sales, the board says home prices are up….blah blah blah”

me thinks this is the last month they’ll get to say this

HAM Solo

We need to give Campbell the hook and import someone like the President of Sony Corpo from Japan, who has been pulling b/s excuses for his company’s share price decline for the last 23 years …and counting. Ahh yes, we see turnaround in second half of the year…

Anonymous

Nice discussion here:
http://www.postcity.com/Post-City-Magazines/April-2011/Real-Estate-Issue-2011-Roundtable/
Garth Turner vs. a number of RE pumpers. Same old tired arguments, but a few choice Garthisms.