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Friday Free-for-all!

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It’s the end of another work week, let’s get out in that sunshine and enjoy it!

This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Home ownership still favourite investment
–Calgary new condo sales plunge 61%
–Bundle and save on realtor fees
–Blame your mom and dad for high prices
–Mother of Mayors girlfriend arrested in China
–Scary high ratio mortgages in Canada
–

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

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Polozi Scheme
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2 more important stories which broke this past week: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1773872/chinas-graft-busters-release-list-100-wanted-fugitives. China releases its Sky Net list of 100 top corruption fugitives. 26 of whom are in Canada – how many in Vancouver? How long is the full list of fugitives? 1000? 10000? 100000? And how many from the full list are in Vancouver? Do we need some new politicians – federally, provincially who can and will actually do something about this problem. The USA quickly acted on deportation proceedings after recently finding Chinese fugitives there who also had property in Vancouver! England, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore have all passed laws limiting and/or taxing foreign real investment and we haven’t even done the same let alone dealing with the corrupt fugitives buying our RE. http://www.vancouversun.com/health/People+Metro+Vancouver+less+happy+than+most+Canadians+survey/10987592/story.html Vancouver is the unhappiest city in Canada. So why is this? There’s been minimal commentary on… Read more »
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3 years 7 months ago
Wearehere
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It will interesting to see if the Mayor’s girlfriend was implicated in laundering her mother’s money into Canada.

You can add this to Baird leaving office and quickly being hired hired by Lai Ki -shing and his son as an ‘advisor’ to the may ways our political system as well as our RE is being affected by HAM.

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3 years 7 months ago
southseacompany
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CBC News: “Why wobbly world markets are more worrying than oil: Don Pittis” “Central bankers are out of bullets if 1929-level markets go bust again” http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/why-wobbly-world-markets-are-more-worrying-than-oil-don-pittis-1.3034038 “In his news conference Wednesday, it seemed (Poloz’s) biggest international concern was that the U.S. economy would grow even more quickly than he expected, forcing him to raise interest rates sooner.” “Every time China or Europe or Japan or Canada cuts interest rates or buys more bonds as a stimulus, markets shoot up further into danger territory.” “Of course, this is one of the reasons why U.S. central bank chair Janet Yellen has been so reluctant to begin raising rates.” “Higher rates may well have the opposite effect, acting as a catalyst for a global market tumble.” “Then (in 2007), (central bankers) solution was to cut interest rates to the bone and flood the… Read more »
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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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For all the virgin boy urine egg lovers or haters, here are some nice delicious environmental friendly, non sacred cow eating, religious safe receipts for you, brought to you by celebrity chefs:

http://time.com/3830167/eating-bugs-insects-recipes/

Bon appetit

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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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@MortgageSlave – Hey uhm…so where is some evidence that I just HATE, HATE Garth Turner? I’m still waiting….

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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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Well as we all know, it’s only because of the filthy HAM money that Mom and Dad had to step in and help junior buy. Otherwise, this would never happen and young kids would never getting into bidding wars for places they can’t afford, or expects handout from their parents. It’s all those damn filthy commies’ fault.

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3 years 7 months ago
ostritch
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I can’t get over the story about the mayor’s potential MIL. Who’s ever even heard of a mother involved in corruption? Dad, ya. Mom & dad, maybe? I wonder how the girl fares if the charges stick? It might taint Gregor to campaign with her on the way to his premiership. We all know that’s coming, right?

Ian Young is the only real journalist left on the planet.

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3 years 7 months ago
Son of Ponzi
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Space, you of all people should know:
HAM parents would do anything to get their babies into RE.
But it must be close to good schools.

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3 years 7 months ago
ostritch
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I thought these two might have had problems with all the flower petals stuck in their eyes. They impaired their vision so badly they kept knocking over glasses of water. They really should’ve tried polysporin. Much better than all that TCM. But dammit! Why? Why did it have to end this wa?!! This world is so damned cruel!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0dMz8RBG7g&spfreload=10

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3 years 7 months ago
Westside Realtor
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Westside SFH market remains soft, little or no oomph.

Locals racing to out bid one another, to get in before they are priced out forever.

Looks tired to me.

WSR

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3 years 7 months ago
pricedoutfornow
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My bro just bought his first house (well, a duplex) in Calgary. Rather than putting money in, my parents=PISSED. Worst time ever to buy a place there! It isn’t even built yet. By the time they move in in December, it’ll be worth less than what they paid, I bet. They also only put 5% down, so CMHC fee = $$$. What a dingbat.

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3 years 7 months ago
patriotz
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@6:

If Robertson was interested in the NDP leadership he would have gone for it the last time or the time before. The NDP took a drubbing in the Interior last election, and the party’s priority is winning these seats back. At this point it’s even less likely that he’d go for it and less likely the party would go for him.

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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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@ostritch – If you bother to read the Chinese report, it is widely known that Qu is enstranged from her mother for a long time. Oh wait, you can’t! Can Ian Young can? I don’t know but I doubt he cares.

I think her parents might have been divorced when she was young and immigrated to Canada. But to be honest, I had no idea who she is until it was reported she was dating the mayor and I had to look up her on Google.

Regardless, are we back to the classical times now where children are responsible for their parent’s crimes now? Cuz if that’s the case, I think the First Nation might want to have some long delayed justice and compensation from the current descendents of original immigrants.

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3 years 7 months ago
Son of Ponzi
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Now, Robertson will win the next election.
All the corrupt Chinese official hiding in Vancouver will polster his war chest and vote for him in masse.

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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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@Son of Ponzi – The article was talking about locals, not HAM.

As for kids, it’s only the guy that needs a free and clear house, car, and a high paying job where you can take days off on last minute notice to attend to any issues/errands the wife’s family might have.

The woman don’t, unless she has a PhD then it’s reversed.

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3 years 7 months ago
Many Franks
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Amazing. Can I assume that we’ll also be launching a recall campaign for Harry Bains? His nephew was recently killed in a potentially gang-related shooting.

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3 years 7 months ago
Dave
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Patriotz, I don’t think Moonbeam polls well outside of Vancouver. It seems that people outside of Vancouver (even outside the Lower Mainland) like to gripe about him, which you don’t see often with Mayors.

The NDP are a stagnant party in my view. If they shift policy in a certain direction to gain support, they lose it somewhere else. The only way I see this party being competitive again is either a major scandal from the Liberals or a complete revamp of the party, which will require they dump all their special interest baggage. Basically, the stars have to align in order for them to win. It’s possible, but it’s a 1 in 10 type event.

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3 years 7 months ago
ILoveCharts
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In our online/instant society, everyone expects that a bubble will burst immediately. These millennials do not appreciate that a cycle can be longer.

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3 years 7 months ago
Yunak
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Chinese creativity in bringing tradition to the next level with accumulation of the wealth is just impressive. Too bad that sometimes doesn’t get understood by officials…

China outlaws ‘obscene’ striptease funerals

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3 years 7 months ago
vangrl
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“Excessive household debt, an overvalued housing market, lower oil prices and a weak employment outlook have Canada teetering on the verge of an economic bust. In fact, it may not take a home price drop for chaos to ensue. Individual debt levels now need growth in prices to keep the system working. Prices plateauing may be sufficient for the house of cards to collapse.”

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/High-Debt-And-Low-Oil-Prices-Create-Perfect-Storm-For-Canadian-Economy.html

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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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@Yunak – Geez…I thought this was a RE blog….

Well, at least those people got $$$ to have a funeral. Why do I keep reading and see TV ads about Canadian seniors don’t even have money for a funeral?? Maybe you should worry more about that.

Plus, at these people aren’t trolling in Thailand sexually exploiting little kids there, unlike sex tourists from Canada that required Canada to pass a law and send police officers there to deal with that.

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3 years 7 months ago
ostritch
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Don’t misunderstand me Space. I meant how Wanting fares in her relationship with Gregor. I’m not saying she has anything to do with her mom. I’m saying our mayor loves money and connections to money. If it starts to stink, she may be dumped. And another one with more favourable connections found. JMO. That’s all. No need to get crazy.

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3 years 7 months ago
Brian Ripley
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Rick Ackerman looks at shorting home builders. I copied his notes and a chart and I added more real estate sector stocks, ETFs and related index thumbnails. http://www.chpc.biz/history-readings/homebuilders-schmeissed In the bottom left of the chart, I have put a blue dashed oval around XRE.TO which consists of securities of Canadian real estate investment trusts (REITs) listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Apparently Canadians like their real estate dividends; the XRE.TO is still well above its 50 day moving average. But as Jin Won Choi noted on March 23, 2015: In 2012, the average Canadian had a net worth of roughly $243,800. Of that, roughly $155,000 was attributed to real estate, which in most cases represents a person owning his or her own home. The average Canadian is therefore already heavily invested in real estate, so it doesn’t make sense to… Read more »
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3 years 7 months ago
crikey
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#3 said, “For all the virgin boy urine egg lovers or haters, here are some nice delicious environmental friendly, non sacred cow eating, religious safe receipts for you, brought to you by celebrity chefs” Urine for a big surprise if you think that your comparison holds any water. Urine-sinuating that a region of the world whose populace has been boiling in schoolboys’ pee for hundreds of years, and wants pee-boiled-eggs designated as a cultural heritage (!), is somehow equivalent to a couple of chefs that are cooking insects for shock value? LOL! Especially when virtually nobody (and certainly not even an entire geographical region) in the Western world is taking up insects as a food fad? Urine-fact forgetting that grubs, maggots, grasshoppers, etc, etc are actually commonly sold in public markets in many parts of Asia — which overwhelming (perhaps… Read more »
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3 years 7 months ago
space889
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@ostritch – Personally I’m not even sure if Qu Wangting and Gregor is even in a real relationship. Seems to be more of a publicity stunt that will likely end as soon as the publicity boost runs out.

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3 years 7 months ago