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Are you comfortable with change?

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45 Comments

After a long while, we’re moving some stuff around here on VCI.

If you visited over the weekend there’s a good chance you found a site in flux with occasional downtime and shifting formats, but we’re pretty close to functional now.

So how does that make you feel?

According to that informal poll to the left, it’s pretty much split at this time, with just over half of you liking the change, almost half hating it and a few that could care less.

But if you DO care, here are a few notes about the new site design:

Here’s the new comment box at the bottom of every article.:

Screenshot 2016-01-24 20.36.41

There are a few new features:

  1. Notify of (new follow up comments) you can set this to get email updates if someone responds to the thread, or set it to email if someone responds to your comment so they don’t get the last word.
  2. There’s been a big shift in comment formatting. You can now reply to comments inline, but this makes it harder to see what’s new.  click ‘Sort by: newest’  at the bottom of the comment box to see the newest comments first.
  3. We’re still trying to figure out how to format comments based on their number of votes. In the meanwhile you can click ‘Sort by: most voted’ to see the highest rated comments at the top of the list.

As always your feedback is welcome.

The best thing about this site has always been the readers that leave commentary (that’s you!), so we’re curious to see how you feel about this new format including things that you like and things that bug you.

Leave your comments below and have an excellent week!

45 Comments
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[…] YVR points out, maybe it’s not just wealthy foreigners who are to blame for rising […]

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bestplaceonearth

change? bears don’t want change. they want status quo and free housing in mama basement only.

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Vanco

Don’t like the new format. The old one was simpler and less distracting.

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patriotz

China’s state media warns Soros on betting against yuan, HK dollar

China’s state media has warned billionaire investor George Soros against betting on falls in the value of the Chinese yuan and Hong Kong dollar , amid widespread worries over the health of world’s second-largest economy…

Soros told Bloomberg TV on Thursday he sees a hard landing for China’s economy contributing to global deflation… He did not specifically mention the yuan and Hong Kong dollar.

Looks like the CCP’s search for scapegoats is in high gear.

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southseacompany

The change is good. Thanks to VCI for the effort.

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history

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it will conduct a total of RMB440 billion of reverse repos in the open market today, being the greatest scale for nearly 3 years in a single day. However, the bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen showed a widened decline after the midday. Shanghai Composite Index collapsed 6.5% to 2,749, hitting the 52-week low. Shenzhen Component Index and ChiNext nosedived 7.1% and 7.7% respectively to 9,465 and 1,991.

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Yunak

“Our Chinese” are much more resilient than theirs. It’s not going to happen here…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/at-3-68-million-this-california-home-has-everything-but-buyers

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ostritch

Ya. Ours like a 50 cent dollar.

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patriotz

In Houston, the plunge in oil prices to a 12-year low is killing the luxury boom. Sales for homes priced at $500,000 or more dropped 17 percent in December from a year earlier, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.

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Bull! Bull! Bull!

first, from the article you posted:

“High-end luxury sales in Sydney and Singapore did well. In the rest of the luxury market, not so much.” so ham is still poring money into cities in the sinosphere.

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iTZK8BSt3OBM/v2/-1x-1.png

second, no need to speculate what’s happening here. all the info you need is in the monthly stats. what are the stats telling you?

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wwwwww

BlackRock Says Clients Are Shifting Away From Stocks

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, said investors are turning to more-illiquid holdings such as real estate and private credit as they seek to generate returns and combat market volatility.

patriotz, on the other hand, loves that liquidity.

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Yunak

The whole race issue is becoming ridiculous, it is just a cheap coverup for money laundering, scamming and society destruction. Shame…

“Why is it “racist” to talk about this issue? I want to have some control over who owns how much of our land and housing. I also want better vetting on where the money is from and who exactly the people are. Many of us local, working residents see our communities turning into a piggy bank for very rich foreigners with no concern for the communities they own real estate in. It is an investment to them, but these are our neighbourhoods and we see them getting hollowed out.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/Tuesday+Control+foreign+ownership/11675456/story.html?__lsa=362b-5191

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ostritch

On a previous pos,t I posted a link to a SCMP article on Shanghai closing its doors to new residents. No more. How is it they aren’t racists, or even worse, elitists? They want to bring house prices down.

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YVR

“I want to have some control over who owns how much of our land and housing.”

You do have control if you own the land. Since you don’t own the land why should you have control over who it is sold to? What makes you special?

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vangrl

I like the new site. Hopefully you know who won’t hack it.

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paulb

New
334
Sold
95
TI:7354

http://www.paulboenisch.com

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Many Franks

Local politicians’ personal stakes in the property market.

Surging real estate makes $2.3M for B.C. cabinet as affordability worsens

Surging real estate values added $2.3 million to B.C. cabinet ministers’ personal wealth this year alone, as the government says coming measures to ease housing affordability won’t include any that lower prices.

One minister saw her four properties jump $765,000, more than five times a minister’s salary. Another saw gains on a portfolio of eight homes. On average, ministers made $103,000 – more than an MLA’s salary, according to a review of public records by CTV News.

The whole thing is worth a read.

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YVR

Funny thing is HAM is supposed to be buying all the property. Susan Anton owns 4 houses in Vancouver and DeJong owns 8 properties in Abbotsford.

Could that be the problem? Locals owning multiple properties? That is 12 properties between 2 people. Both are white and locals.

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bestplaceonearth

why is it a problem of accumulating wealth? what is your solution? free housing for everyone!

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Westcoastlife

LOL, it really isn’t locals accumulating true wealth, take a look at the number of mortgages on homes each community has – most of the region has an 80% mortgage rate on owner occupied homes (Vancouver, weirdly, is low). So, if a correction were to happen, us taxpayers would be stuck holding the bill as CMHC backs all these mortgages. What would be best, is if CMHC didn’t back mortgages higher than the National average, so the first $400 grand is taxpayer backed, banks back the other $1.6 billion on the mortgage.

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Bull! Bull! Bull!

Canadian securities regulators review Vancouver real estate ‘crowdfunders’ after SCMP report

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1903946/canadian-securities-regulators-review-vancouver-real-estate-crowdfunders

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Many Franks

And more: Real estate company denies ‘crowdfunding’ to raise capital from investors

Sun Commercial Real Estate said in a statement that media stories suggesting the company has been “crowdfunding” to raise funds from investors and may have breached securities laws “are false.”

[…]

The statement also did not explain why, if the company says it is not “crowd funding,” it has a company called Suncrowdfunding Holdings Ltd. A corporate records search shows the company’s listed address is the same as Sun Commercial Real Estate Ltd. Davidson Guo, SunCom’s president and CEO, is also listed as a director of Suncrowdfunding.

This appears to be hilariously inept and will be fun to watch.

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Yunak

Scumbags will blame it on poor English language skills of founders and claim that any accusation on wrongdoing is actually racist.

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Tiger

Canada’s housing correction is ‘already happening’ say experts

http://globalnews.ca/news/2475190/canadas-housing-correction-is-already-happening-say-experts/

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Softy

What a misleading headline. Here is an excerpt from the article that tells the whole story:

Join the discussionBuilders have been busy constructing new houses over the past year or so in places like Calgary and Regina thanks to plans put in motion when oil prices were sharply higher.

Unfortunately for them, those new homes are being finished just as work is drying up and job seekers are moving away from Alberta and Saskatchewan, a trend that is already denting real estate values in both provinces

Those who are moving away from oil-producing regions are landing in cities where prospects are better – namely Vancouver and Toronto — something Kavcic says will keep pressure up on already lofty home prices in those cities this year.

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southseacompany

Goodbye monetary policy, hello fiscal policy?

“The world believes deficit financing necessary to boost growth: Morneau”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-world-believes-deficit-financing-necessary-to-boost-growth-morneau/article28331301/

“Under the belt-tightening policies of the former Conservative government, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz was forced to drop interest rates to limit the negative economic impact of collapsing oil prices.”

“With the Liberals promising a significant stimulus package in the coming budget, Mr. Poloz held off lowering the central bank’s key interest rate on Wednesday, which financial analysts interpreted as a sign he is passing the economy-boosting baton to the government.”

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YVR

Poloz isn’t done cutting. He had no choice to skip a cut this time with CAD in free fall. Now the CAD will stabilize he will cut next time. There is no way the Liberals can put money into the economy fast enough. Infrastructure projects take years to get going. $10 billion across Canada per year is chump change anyway. Less than $1 billion per province. As an example BC alone added $90 billion to house values last year. Imagine how much of that gets borrowed and put into the economy? Once that Ponzi scheme stops look out. Negative rates.

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Loon

It takes a little getting used to but such is life.
However, voting buttons that work on the mobile site, I’m in !

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patriotz

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/the-illusion-of-home-equity-gains-has-weakened-our-will-to-act/article28365734/

But home equity is not like other types of wealth because housing is a positional good. If your stock portfolio goes up 30 per cent, you can cash it out and spend it. But if your house value goes up 30 per cent, then so do the values of most of the properties around you. If you want to cash out, you have to move to another city where prices haven’t gone up. Most Vancouverites don’t want to move away – so what have they gained?

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Fedup

Not quite accurate when you think of all the equity that has been cashed out of a lot of houses along the way….
That’s real money that has been used to buy cars, trips, university for kids etc

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patriotz

Great example of the illusion held by so many – that borrowing against your property is realizing your gains. It isn’t – it’s just borrowing..

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Fedup

My response was tongue in cheek 😉

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ostritch

The urge to correct trumps everything else.

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YVR

You missed the biggest thing that equity is used for. To borrow to buy additional houses, give to kids to buy houses, to renovate the house or just or make mortgage payments on those houses. Ponzi scheme.

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paulb

That’s a good point. Your house goes up 500k in 1 year but do you cashout and relocate? At a certain point I suppose.

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bestplaceonearth

like what you did, cashed out from RENTAL in vancouver to rental in ottawa?

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tedeastside

buy before its too late

you heard it here first

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Tiger

idiots like you keep saying that for long time ,at the same time SFH price went from $400,000 to 1.4 million.while ur holding your little dick in ur parent basement with no future other than comment on website like that.

http://www.chpc.biz/vancouver-housing.html

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Ray

In addition to my comments on the previous post about “new” threaded comments. Is it on purpose that you switched to a single “net” vote total? Now a 0 vote can no longer indicate that 20 people are split 10 and 10, but rather could be taken that the audience is rather apathetic to the entire threaded comment. Not to mention the people that used the pair of totals to do things like vote on a binary poll, etc.

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ostritch

Where did you come from Dousche?

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dousche

Instead of changing the layout of this site, maybe you should change it’s premise. Vancouver real estate has been the best investment around for more than a decade and there’s basically no way to lose money by buying property here.

If you want to lose money try bank accounts or the stock market, but the government clearly wants peopel to buy real estate and will keep jacking prices so stop being a sucker, admint when your wrong and buy in Vancouver before it’s really too late.

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Bird

I’m not convinced this is a good change, but perhaps that’s because I’m stuck in my ways. I’m used to jumping to the comments and reading through that drama and the new layout has tripped me up a bit, but maybe I’ll get used to it.

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