While we wait for the February data, I thought perhaps a back of the napkin look at rental stock available might be of interest:

http://www.chpc.biz/history-readings/condo-glut

Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are the biggest markets in Canada for rental housing available. I’m surprised that Vancouver’s supply is not larger, but perhaps that is a reflection of the long standing anecdotal claims of vacant suites that have been bought but not for immediate occupancy. Clearly different markets prefer different advertising providers (ie: Craigslist vs Kijiji).

So this morning driving south bound across a fairly low traffic Cambie bridge in the leftmost fast lane, 2 cars in front of me was this your typical environment & outdoor loving hippie car with the canoe and camping gear strapped to the car roof. This car in the fast lane on Cambie bridge going like 45km/hr, holding up cars behind while the cars in the slower lanes ar whizzing right by.

Finally got off the bridge and the car went into the left turn lane to 7th Ave. Sneak a look at the car, yeap, your typical hippie Vancouver driver smoking it up. I guess this is part of the price we pay to live in this city, dealing with drivers who prefers to kill their brain cells while driving.

2
Are they chinese with small dicks?

space889, cambie st bridge doesn’t have fast lanes nor does it have slow lanes. you’ll know that there is a fast lane when you see a sign that says “slower traffic keep right”. i suggest you review the rules of the road.

here is the english vesrion. i’m sure you can find the chinese version on their sight easier than me.
http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing/Documents/drivers4.pdf

If this was a stock trade, someone would be going away for insider trading! FFS!?!
http://www.theprovince.com/business/Harcourt+Golden+Mile+windfall+Former+premier+family+could/10846074/story.html

@Bull! Bull! Bull! – So why do the left lane almost always go faster than right or center lane? Usually 15km/h+ over the speed limit??

Wait is it you Bull x3? You always drive 45 – 50km/h regardless of lane you are in while driving on city roads?

@2 …your typical hippie Vancouver driver smoking it up. I guess this is part of the price we pay to live in this city, dealing with drivers who prefers to kill their brain cells while driving.

How about the other part of the price we pay to live in this city while dealing with newly arrived idiots in fancy cars, without brain cells, totally clueless about driving but driving with fake driving licences?

https://www.facebook.com/RichmondLearnstoPark/photos/pb.218515995025423.-2207520000.1425075070./261870050690017/?type=3&theater

@space889

because there are a lot of people like you who don’t know how to drive and want to get to the next red light before everyone else.

Nike proposes 31,000+ sq ft retail store with 17″ ceilings!! Is this going to drive West Coast Woman crazy and stop shopping at Nike?? Oh wait, no HAM involved so all is fine then….

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/nike-proposing-31-500-square-170615998.html

@Bull! Bull! Bull! – Yes please remind yourself of that the next time you race a yellow, cut someone off trying to merge, cut in lane with turn signal after the fact, or busy posting on twitter/FB while at a stop light.

@Yunak – you know what they say about the ying & yang….. Wonder how much traffic ticket revenue the province is getting from these drivers…

@5:

Not only did Harcourt buy a house near there before the plan was official, but so did Gregor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/10/gregor-robertson-kitsilano-move-point-grey-bike-lane_n_3575451.html

Some hard numbers – Money Sense survey of Canadian income and wealth.
http://www.moneysense.ca/planning/the-all-canadian-wealth-test-2015-charts

The top 20% family in Vancouver has an average/median(?) income of almost $240K. At current interest rates, they can easily get a mortgage amount of 5x income assume they have no other debts and good credit. So that’s $1.2M mortgage limit. Add in $200K – $300K down payment, they can easily buy a $1.5M house roughly. Incidentally, most of the good working professional areas have houses between $1M to $1.8M.

Re: @13.

Yep, you are right. Top 20% could afford over $v 1mil. Yet, as much as the media hype the plus $ 1million market, there’s not really that much activity up there.

Southeby’s produces half yearly reports on the ‘luxury’ home market. Yearly sales of homes over $1 mil amount to around 2700-3000 sales a year for Greater Vancouver. Last year they report there were 3,000 +$1 million sales out of a total of 33,000 sales in the REBGV area. That’s less than 10%.

Even looking on the MLS map right now I see only about 4,000 units (of all types) over $1 ml listed out of a total of 15,000 listings for Metro Van area.

Most of the market is driven by the 90% mortgaging themselves to buy cheaper houses/condos.

@13 – what complete bollocks! The average income of the richest 20% of BC families may be 240k, but the distribution of riches is far from uniform and has a very long tail. This means that the richest 2% horribly skew the average for the top 20%. This is another reason why real estate and banking should be handled by engineers/scientists/mathematicians. Your average realtor or “financial planner” has probably never heard of a statistic called a median.

The moneysense blogger is devoid of sense.

I’m going to spread thumb tacks all over the point gray bike lanes. And open up a bike tire shop nearby. Fu cyclists

Here is a good example of how you should have at least NINE data points before making your assertions

http://dutchsinse.com/2262015-southern-california-dormant-volcano-shows-movement-keep-watch-on-area/

The author does not realize it, but he has hit the magic number good statisticians look for. (9) EQs at Dormant Volcanoes, in the US-Mexico area. The EQs are all in February, with one day to go.