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T.G.I.Friday Free-for-all!

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All hail the glorious weekend!

It’s the end of another work-week in paradise and that means it’s time for our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Friday Free-for-all time!

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

–Don’t mess with the market
–‘They’ve earned it’
–pointing fingers
–poverty in a $3 mil house
–may as well get welfare
–ready to give up?
–so who’s happy?
–time to buy?
–Fed says watch out 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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Royce McCutcheon

I can’t make it, but here’s a poster suggestion for the rally:

Four out of five doctors…
[Picture of a shack]
…can’t afford this house.
Give us data.

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Slagathor

….“The east and the west are starting to blend. “A lot of people are going to the east side because they want a neighbourhood that still plays street hockey. Plus, you can buy something over there for $1.6 [million] or $1.7 [million] and have community.”…

My how times have changed! Only a few years ago, Canadians that owned $1.7M homes sent their kids to private schools in Switzerland where they played as much real hockey as they wanted.

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trackback

[…] Many Franks says: […]

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Village

Re sixth n steal development. ..I Watched the whole deal turn sour.Rennie was called in to save it from bankruptcy. ..they had to knock off 20-25% off what they initially hoped for and then pay Rennie to do so. ..so at the end of the day the developers either lost a bit or maybe broke even. As for the Olympic Village which did go bankrupt it has been for sale for 8 years and they still have 15 or 20 units left to flog off. Yes 8 yrs since the presale launched. Oh and the only thing booming down there are brewerys and alcoholics

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w

Chinese Employers in Vancouver BC Canada

Chinese Employers has a total different standards. which is not acceptable in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eC89j3l3j0

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fanaticallybroke

With every right there are obligations.

The right of admission into canada as a resident or citizen means safety and property rights enforced and lack of discrimination, subsidized healthcare, a fair trial and freedom of travel in and out.

The obligations are paying tax in relation to your worldwide income.

Some are escaping the obligations while enjoying the rights.

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southseacompany

@#90 And here’s Charlie Smith, back in 2012, accusing the Conservatives of bringing in policies that may “kill the the Vancouver housing market” and lower prices.

http://www.straight.com/news/stephen-harper-playing-dangerous-game-declaring-war-vancouver-housing-sector

Smith is so weird, I stopped taking him seriously a long time ago. But, then, again, there’s sure a lot of RE ads in the GS.

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patriotz

@90:

It’s funny how wrong he was about Ontario:

Ontario goes to the polls on Thursday after a bitter, nasty campaign dominated increasingly by one topic – strategic voting designed to defeat the party you hate most rather than the one you actually support.

But strategic voting is ironically a misnomer because the results are consistently a big failure…

Nonetheless, the flawed approach will attempt to stop Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak by steering voters to either Premier Kathleen Wynne’s governing Liberals or Andrea Horwath’s NDP, depending on which appears to have the best chance in each riding.

Hudak was of course crushed in the election and Wynne won a majority, having gone into the election with only a minority.

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UBC in crisis mode

It is not too early to think about the federal election. We deserve the government we elect.

“Here’s how to thwart Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in key Lower Mainland ridings”

http://www.straight.com/news/430251/heres-how-thwart-stephen-harpers-conservatives-key-lower-mainland-ridings

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UBC in crisis mode

If you do not do “strategic voting”, you will get Harper minority government in the fall.

Take the poll at the end of this page:
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2014/06/09/strategic-voting-helps-those-you-want-to-hurt

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southseacompany

“Rising Mortgage Rates to Test Housing Market’s Strength”< Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-mortgage-rates-to-test-housing-markets-strength-1434913633

"The housing market could be in for a bumpy ride as mortgage rates climb."

"The national housing market has been gaining strength in recent years as prices rose rapidly in many areas."

"For five years, mortgage rates have hovered around 50-year lows, a situation that most economists believe will start to reverse later this year when the Federal Reserve begins to raise interest rates."

"The Federal Reserve doesn’t have direct control over mortgage rates or any other long-term rates, which fluctuate based on perceptions about the economy and inflation. But when the Fed raises short-term interest rates, other rates move accordingly over time. Mortgages rates typically move along with yields on 10-year Treasury notes."

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Shut It Down Already

‘For the very best example there will always be “Sixth & Steel” where that ridiculous building-length eyesore of a sign has been recently removed. I don’t think it’s because the place is sold out.’

Their website says it’s sold out.

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History

http://www.hangthebankers.com/chinas-stock-market-about-to-collapse/
Nothing is certain, but I did notice the ten year visa strategy has an historic ring to it… If you factor China in the midst of its financial Wuhan moment

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Shut It Down Already

“Not sure why Garth doesn’t just look at other cities that actually keep track of foreign money and apply that to Vancouver.”

He did, a few weeks ago.

http://www.greaterfool.ca/2015/05/12/the-frauds/

You all rejected it.

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@patriotz

“domestic in-migration, which is why the population growth rate is so low by historical standards.”

Wrong. All the minorities in the small towns across Canada are migrating to Toronto and Vancouver to be with their kind. You won’t find any data on that but trust me it’s happening big time.

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vangrl

only 1.4 mil, and $600 a month maintenance. But really easy parking.

http://www.remax.ca/bc/vancouver-real-estate/na—604-77-walter-hardwick-av-na-wp_id112838594-lst/

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Mister Obvious

@75 vangrl

has anyone seem the Olympic Village area lately?
———————————————-

Yep. That will be Vancouver’s next “Downtown East Side” area. The last few square feet are being filled in with concrete as we speak. Some day you may point to it as the second best example of “what the hell went wrong?” in Vancouver City.

For the very best example there will always be “Sixth & Steel” where that ridiculous building-length eyesore of a sign has been recently removed. I don’t think it’s because the place is sold out.

The isn’t a single number ‘4’ in any unit number and still that rusty old jail house sits empty and unloved.

So mind-bogglingly ugly… so incredibly expensive…

What on earth were they thinking?

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dip

Grownups, I meant bc bud
And for a change vote ndp, they seem to have some housing affordability in their platform, well not the best, but at least they didn’t overblown cmhc, 0down40years and maybe they raise minimum wage >>> inflation assests like houses are loosing their relative value…

And go to Evelyn Xia’s meeting

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dip

Garth is right on one account… interest rates will rise, simple because there is no official Quantitative Easing since October 2014. Check the oil price since that date, fed is leaving the market on its own and it didn’t crush. Well my theory can change with grexit next month. If that happens any financial illiterate or literate will be blown away… Get away from your computer and go to Evelyn xia meeting next Wednesday, show in numbers and the press will overblown the event… if you really care of course. Still in my opinion the main factors are… cmhc,interest rates, bank of mom, pgrownups, multi suites, temporary foreign workers and ham, with emphasis on first two. We can change quickly the last two, at least tax the shit out of these ham guys, Do you know they teach mandarin in… Read more »

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patriotz

@74: “Then we have the in-migration form the rest of Canada”

Actually we don’t have net domestic in-migration, which is why the population growth rate is so low by historical standards.

Also there seems to be an idea current on this board that a large stock of empty dwellings is bullish. Of course it’s bearish, just as it was bearish in the US, Ireland, and currently China. Any one of a number of factors could bring those properties on the market.

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Shlomo

When the day of reckoning arrives, it would be good to remember all the traitors that got us to this point. It’ll be all fine and dandy to excoriate our witless politicians, realtors, RE-pumping mags and all that, but let’s not forget the banks. “Along with the head of the Justice Department’s Eastern District of New York office, Loretta Lynch, Breuer called a press conference to formally announce that the United States had decided to levy a record fine against the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, better known as HSBC, a pillar of British finance and the largest bank in Europe. The bank, which had a major U.S. subsidiary called HBUS, had been charged with committing an astonishing list of crimes—a laundry list that included pretty much every kind of crime a bank can possibly be charged with. The… Read more »

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gungho

#74

I agree, it doesn’t seem like just 1-2 things will derail this gravy train, what we need is a perfect storm of all the variables coming online at the same time.

1. Chinese bubble bursting
2. Local political change from the whores in power
3. The whores in power themselves change, from Libs to NDP, might trigger #2
4. Interest rates rising
5. Public perception of RE as infallibly rising asset class changing
6. CMHC dissolving and the too-big-to-fail banks being faced to shoulder real risk

What did I miss?

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Best place on meth

Happy 80th to the Dalai Lama.

Hopefully the communist party dies before he does.

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vangrl

has anyone seem the Olympic Village area lately?

I was in that area today. I can’t believe the amount of condos that have gone up. I don’t think it’s comparable to any other area in Vancouver

There isn’t 25 feet between most of the buildings, and most units have those “smoker” balconies that are probably 2×8 f.t max.

The ones closer to the water are a bit further stretched out but the ones closer to West 2nd are a claustrophobic eyesore. No sunlight to be seen.

I’d much prefer an older 3 story wood frame with an actual yard and lots of sun & openness.

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