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FFFA! Zoocasa, Flat, Up, Down, Dutch!

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It’s that time of the week again…

FRIDAY!

And this is when we do our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, let’s get to it!

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Condo gains since 2008?
–Real estate market set for slowdown?
–Business escapes to USA
–Carney says no Dutch disease
–Realtor opinion on Zoocasa?
–How are their estimates?
–VCI cliche hunt
–August 2012 stats
–

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

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Smithgerman
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Ultimate guide to housing bubbles around the world

http://www.torontocondobubble.com/2013/08/ultimate-guide-to-housing-bubbles.html

Worth checking out!

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5 years 7 months ago
tedeastside
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i’d rather live in New York’s worst slum than Vancouver’s best neighborhood….Vancouver is so boring, cold and unfriendly, you’re wasting your life if you live there

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5 years 7 months ago
CanuckDownUnder
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Trying times for ursus australis, in the past couple of months the property market has really picked up steam here. According to RP Data year-to-date prices are now up 7 per cent in Sydney and 5 per cent across all capital cities. In Perth prices are up 10.5 per cent in the past 12 months! These aren’t just fudged real estate pumper numbers either, the Australian Bureau of Statistics just put out their last quarterly update and they have prices up 5.1 per cent in the past 12 months, up 6.1 per cent in Sydney and up 11 per cent in Perth. The numbers out of Perth are really odd since the mining slowdown should be hitting the west the hardest, vacancy rates there have doubled and anecdotes are suggesting rents are dropping fast. Of course the RBA is trying… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
frank
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Smithgerman

I like the line from that turd Greenspan saying..” I have no particular regrets. The housing bubble is not a reflection of what we did, it is a global phenomenon”. What self-serving crap!

There was no housing bubble in Germany or Japan or in fact a good chunk of the world. The only places where it happened, are the countries that believed in and aped the Greenspan doctrine of loose monetary policy.

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5 years 7 months ago
RPM
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Developers of a 47-storey condo tower in Spain forgot to include a working elevator! Oops! Take the stairs!

http://gizmodo.com/the-builders-of-this-spanish-skyscraper-forgot-the-elev-1065152844

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5 years 7 months ago
YVR
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Frank: “There was no housing bubble in Germany or Japan or in fact a good chunk of the world.”

Japan was in and is still recovering from a housing bubble. They have tried their hardest to reinflate it but couldn’t. There is more to housing bubbles than low interest rates. Although Greenspan deserves his share of the blame, other government policies created the bubble in the US.

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5 years 7 months ago
Turkey
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Don’t mind if I do (ditto the same drivel by tedeastside on the last thread.)

Trophy: Why Would Anyone Want To Live Here With Weather This Bad (Genus: Bear)

Spotted: http://vancouvercondo.info/2013/08/fffa-zoocasa-flat-up-down-dutch.html#comment-212138
Last Bagged: n/a

Scoreboard/Rules: piratepad.net/ep/pad/view/ro.SXqM61It83r/latest

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5 years 7 months ago
Many Franks
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@Turkey: Bagged!

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5 years 7 months ago
Many Franks
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The Star tries nobly to extend our definition of humanity to include renters: In the political context, home ownership equals hope, and rule No. 1 in politics is that hope trumps reality every time. No politician wants to stomp all over the hopes and dreams of the suburbanites, especially given their strategic importance in the 2015 election. What we really need, it seems, is an expanded, updated concept of the Canadian dream — one that widens people’s aspirations beyond home ownership, even those people in the strategically important suburbs. Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto and founder of the Creative Class Group, has been a major voice in the push to shift our views on home renting. Renters, Florida argues, will give us the mobile and flexible workforces of the future. Renters are the kind of… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
DisposableChrome
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Speaking of following the herd on investment trends, here’s a short documentary about bankruptcy by beanie babies:

https://vimeo.com/4878835

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5 years 7 months ago
Hovering
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Anyone out there have access to realtor listings?

I occasionally see the “done deals” section of the Globe and Mail and wonder if it is really telling the whole story..

For instance in the Sat Aug 3rd edition the “done deal” for Vancouver was at 3025 Laurel St in Vancouver. the article claiemd it had sold in 4 days at list price and then went on to quote some realtor like they knew anything about anything..

Perhaps the articel was correct this time. but I wonder.. was this sold after the a price drop and re-listing? Perhaps I will never know..

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5 years 7 months ago
Turkey
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@Hovering,

According to my (spotty) information, 3025 Laurel showed up on MLS around June 5th and was de-listed around June 19th. List price was $585k.

“Done deals” article are pure marketing, so there’s a natural filter that tends to pass only the rosy stories. That’s true in both good and bad markets. I’ve also heard criticism that these stories are often taken from pretty old transactions (this one’s two months old; I think they’ve been much older in the past.)

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5 years 7 months ago
Kratos
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Just added to my position and bought 5000 bucks worth of GPC stock today. This “boring” stock has had an average compounded annual return of 15.4% since 1983 EXCLUDING dividends. One dollar invested in 1983 is now worth 58 bucks for those of you RE bulls who can’t do math. Compare this to the anemic 6% compounded average annual return of Van RE (long-term) and even the pathetic 8.4% during the boom years of the last decade. GPC has also raised its dividends 57 years in a row, including during the recession years of 2008-2010. 10K invested in 1983 would yield over 16K annually in dividends today. Why anyone would want to pump money into a low return high cost investment like RE is beyond me. Van RE is only for suckers who can’t do the math to realize they’ve… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
slurker
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Carney is right that Canada isn’t suffering from ‘Dutch Disease’ as it may but we certainly aren’t capitalizing on this resource windfall the way we should be. Unlike most other resource rich countries in the world (Norway, Saudi Arabia etc.) Canada does not capture a large part of the revenue generated from the resource industry.

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5 years 7 months ago
Best place on meth
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Canada loses 39,400 jobs in July, unemployment rate rises to 7.2%

BC loses 12,000 jobs including 1 home based dentist, unemployment rate rises to 6.7%.

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5 years 7 months ago
registered
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@1 Sorry Smithgerman, that was just awful. They sound new to this. One give away was the point about Germany’s ‘less restrictive’ land use policy, which suggests an naive author caught by Demographia’s propaganda. Germany has a restrictive land use policy, a fact that’s not hard to find: http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Freiburg_IJST_BuehlerPucher.pdf From that article, after the points about making sustainability a high priority for 40 years: “The right to develop property is highly circumscribed in Germany. New development is limited by law to areas immediately adjacent to already built-up areas— though exceptions are made on a case by case basis (BMVBS 1993, 2000). Even in the case of private land, developers and the municipality must convince higher levels of government to permit development of areas not adjacent to already existing settlements. Land-owners cannot seek compensation if development” That the authors didn’t see… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
sillybear
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#2,

I am assuming you are living in the dogslum in NY then. If you , why arent you packing?
Negative people are just so …negative. they even bitch about this beautiful weather on the best place on earth.
Come on, boys and girls, try to enjoy your life like the rest of the vancouverites…just for one bit. It does not kill you to try!

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5 years 7 months ago
jesse
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“BC loses 12,000 jobs”

Construction employment in Vancouver has dropped of late, even with residential units under construction not too far off their highs. Something to watch.
http://twitpic.com/d7dabj

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5 years 7 months ago
one migrant economy
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It’s official, Canada does not have Dutch disease.

i feel so much better. Oil slop worker next door (I live in Cowichan Valley) leaving for ‘Murray tomorrow, flying out for his three week rotation. I’m sure he’s breathing a sigh of relief.

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5 years 7 months ago
Rent$385
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Rent$385
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Stumbled across this rental ad on craigslist “New Renovation”. $1390 for 900 Sq Ft.
That shower looks totally up to code: http://images.craigslist.org/00Y0Y_3LShU7gy0oU_600x450.jpg
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/apa/3986958980.html

If anyone wants to debate if the owner is/could be making any money, here is the most recently MLS listing detailing the rental income for the house: http://www.myrealsearch.ca/5184-hoy-st-vancouver-property-550392.html
It’s “Truly an intelligent investment” according to the ad!

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5 years 7 months ago
SkiBum
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Hello folks. I’m looking at buying a house/chalet in whistler. Just under the $1m mark. Any ideas/advice on properties/local market? Is now a good time for me to jump in there? I’ve been renting for over 10 years and am about to buy a house. I thought since the lower mainland market is crap, maybe I’ll head up to whistler. At least dodge the rain and maybe get onto some better timing (market wise) What are your thoughts?

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5 years 7 months ago
questions for the bears
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@skibum..

Whistler is alright, but could get boring after a while? My buddy bought a strata chalet, built a new floor, and what had slept 3 now sleeps like 8. He bought last year, rents it out, and is cash flow positive and has a small cap gain.

I would be wary asking advice on here given the dearth of intelligence/morons who thumb down everything.

Good luck on your search

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5 years 7 months ago
tedeastside
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attn realtors….i’m deciding on a city to live in North America….whats
good about vancouver

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5 years 7 months ago
Just Looking...
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Real Estate Returns: A key factor in a ranking of best cities to attend university as an International student. WTF??? I recently came across The Sea Turtle Index: http://seaturtleindex.com/city/vancouver/?&p=2 (Vancouver ranks 15th worldwide, Montreal takes top spot). This is a ranking of which cities are the best in the world to study in as an international student put together by the China-based Bank of Communications and seems to be aimed primarily at Chinese students interested in studying abroad. From their website: “In Chinese culture, a “sea turtle” is a high-flying graduate of an overseas university, who has reaped the benefits of a top-rate global education and immersion in another culture, and is typically coveted by employers upon return to his/her home country.” The fascinating thing about this index is the factors included in the ranking. Of the five main considerations,… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
Kratos
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I’m Chinese, my wife is mainland chinese and you’re right. Chinese, especially mainland chinese like to buy property for a variety of reasons. It took a long time to convince my wife why real estate is a decent investment but that one can certainly do better. If you read my previous posts you will see my arguments for why real estate, other than perhaps for a primary residence, is a horrible investment. As I said, I put my money where my mouth is. I have a primary residence, and I have money in stocks. It’s clear to me what has been the winner (and no, buying stocks doesn’t mean searching for the next google or apple or getting busted like RIM). If you take the time to do your homework, stocks is by far a better investment vehicle than real… Read more »
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5 years 7 months ago
crabman
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@Just Looking…

You are forgetting the fact that many of those foreign students will sell their homes when they graduate and return home.

On a side note, it’s pretty pathetic that the liberals are trying to raise money by selling spots in BC schools to more profitable foreign students.

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5 years 7 months ago