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Happy New Year! Friday Free-for-all 2016!

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Huh, will you look at that… Looks like another year has come and gone.

Here in Vancouver we wrapped up the the year with super-low inventory of 6993 and likely some happy realtors. For comparison 2014 ended with a total inventory of 11,242.

For those of you looking for larger friendly family condos at affordable prices there’s some good news, this one starts at right around $1000 per square foot.

Prices like those might not be helping Canadians with their first priority, which is apparently paying down debt.

So who’s buying and who’s leaving?

One thing you can count on in the new year, Ted will never move. That guy loves this city.

Happy New Year to all of you!

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Ulsterman

@23 YLTNboomerang Says: “No, that guy probably has looked at his assessment each year and thought, wow, I make $60K a year, good thing I invested in RE as I’m rich! He then goes and buys a BMW…on his HELOC, then books a fancy vacation, on HELOC, then pays off his monthly credit card balance over and over again, on HELOC, then his 1.4M house has a 900K mortgage” That may make some housing bear feel better about missing out on the housing lottery, but it probably isn’t as common as you wish it were. This owner makes 120-150k in his union job, lives in locally in his own home he’s owner for 30+ years, and drives a modest truck. I’m familiar with one of his extended family and know a bit about him. He’s just wealthy compared to most… Read more »

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Spec

From the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35219127

Year of the monkey off to a GR8 start… (and yes, technically not yet year of the monkey by some measurements….)

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Best place on meth

Second shoe has just dropped from the stock market of the biggest shithole in the world.

And hard.

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I'm with Stupid ^

So basically nobody has a plan???

Well off to the mutual funds we go!

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Spec

#42 “agree, paid-shills and landless miserable bears have kept posting garbage since 2004.”
Yeah. That rental lobby is some powerful with all their shill bucks. Pro Tip: if you’re going to write fiction, make it plausible.

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bestplaceonearth

agree, paid-shills and landless miserable bears have kept posting garbage since 2004.

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Yunak

Same old, same old in NY… Restless shills and RE whorshippers keep frequenting the blog and posting the garbage over and over again…

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Shut It Down Already

38, there’s always a listing surge in spring. Check the graphs.

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Oracle

CBC has been taken over by Corporate lobbyists. Trudeau not doing anything about it. Stop funding it or get those lobbyists out of the board.

Trudeau seems to be a lame duck prime minister already.

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Loon

I predict a listing surge in the spring, people are going to try to capitalize on the high bc assessments. This may pump inventory, sellers will hang on but I don’t think prices will go down THIS year, sorry 🙁

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Oracle

Can’t believe people are still posting here.

lesson from past 10 years: become corrupt or get stepped on.

thats all you need to now.

c ya

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UBC in crisis mode

Buy a rental unit, as rent is on the rise. Make sure you get 80% from the bank for your low interns mortgage. Interest in Canada will stay low as oil price continue to fall to $25 a barrel.

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GreenSalad

@ realist

A commute of course, but lots of decent places in Oakland.

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Vanco

@31

You want to stay far away from this blog for investment advices.

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Vanco

I think Vancouver RE will go up by another 8-10% this year.

The embitter three stooges will blame everyone except themselves.

Kinda like last year.

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realist

Happy New Year to all! Wherever January finds the readership of this blog, I gather it is not on the street, which is where I have observed some Vancouverites today, so we are most grateful.

The following from the City on the Bay will sound familiar.
From San Francisco Business Times via Housingwire:

“Millennials can only afford 135 square feet of housing in San Francisco / Strong job growth won’t help these young borrowers”
December 31, 2015

by Brena Swanson

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/35936?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+housingwire%2FuOVI+%28HousingWire%29

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I'm with Stupid ^

Happy NEW YEARSSS

So whats everyones big plan for this year??? Where are the experts here putting their money into???

Looks like bonds arent going to do anything again this year, so where should we put our money?? Inquiring minds would like to know.

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southseacompany

“Rising interest rates will be the big finance story of 2016”, The Telegraph UK

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12054016/Rising-interest-rates-will-be-the-big-finance-story-of-2016.html

“If the big the question in 2015 was whether central banks would increase interest rates, the big question in 2016 is what will happen when they do.
For six or seven years, central banks around the world have been keeping interest rates low and buying bonds through their quantitative easing programmes. This has pushed up the price of all sorts of assets – equities, bonds, property, you name it.”

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southseacompany

“Housing analysts split on effect of higher down payments”
“Hike could chill first-time home buying and cut realtor earnings in Metro Vancouver”,
Business in Vancouver

https://www.biv.com/article/2015/12/housing-analysts-split-effect-higher-down-payments/

“A sharp increase in the down payment required to buy more expensive homes using government-backed mortgage insurance will affect low-equity buyers but is “not a game-changer” for the B.C. housing market, according to Helmut Pastrick”

“However, other analysts say the increase in down payments to 10% from 5% on home values above $500,000 to a maximum of $1 million will have a chilling effect on both home sales and real estate agent incomes.”

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bestplaceonearth

“Patriotz, did you buy at a “bubble” price?”

buy? this person left Vancouver 8 years ago, whining about fundamental in this city; moved from place to place, ended up in Ottawa some years ago…God know where he ended up, may be in Detroit lol. One thing does not change, he has a fatal attraction on Vancouver.

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Shut It Down Already

Patriotz, did you buy at a “bubble” price?

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bestplaceonearth

the paid-shill pulled the words from his arses – unfortunate, bears listen to this armchair-economist. don’t forget, these shills have been talking about the bubble, interest rates going up, fundamental, since …uh…2004. Charts and graphs, please!

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patriotz

@21: “BUT, just imagine you bought my SFH in Burnaby in 1999 for 299k”

Buying at the right price – ownership cost about the same as renting and soon less – means being right from the start.

That’s entirely different from unrealized gains for someone who bought at a bubble price. Someone who buts at a bubble price can only come ahead by selling at a higher price.

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gah

It’s not like people haven’t done well out of this. I’m acquaintances with a couple that both work in the service industry, they got some help from their parents and bought a dump in East Van back in 2008, and to afford it they rented out their basement and garage and still could barely make it. I thought they were crazy; I asked them what would happen if interest rates went up – “that would be really tough”. This year they sold their place and moved to Victoria and don’t have a mortgage anymore.

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YLTNboomerang

@21

No, that guy probably has looked at his assessment each year and thought, wow, I make $60K a year, good thing I invested in RE as I’m rich! He then goes and buys a BMW…on his HELOC, then books a fancy vacation, on HELOC, then pays off his monthly credit card balance over and over again, on HELOC, then his 1.4M house has a 900K mortgage and all of a sudden that 40% correction doesn’t look so good. Considering he has little to no RRSP and no savings as everything got plowed into the mortgage a walk away is viable. Take enough of these together and 40% turns into 50% or higher. I agree 30% Canada wide is the extreme but I bet much more for YVR.

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