How do normal people afford to live in Vancouver?
That’s easy – Payday loans!
The cost of payday loans in B.C. can work out to the equivalent of an annual interest rate of more than 500 per cent, the FCAC report notes. And payday loan use has “grown especially rapidly” in B.C., according to a January report from Vancity, with British Columbians “using payday loans at an increasingly higher per capita rate than residents of other provinces.”
Read the full article over in the Vancouver Sun.
This situation looks like a temporary break. Locusts are regrouping while keeping the market alive through homies or loopholes. Government must be continuously pressed for harsher regulations in order to fight the plague.
“Across the entire REBGV region, which extends from South Delta to the Sunshine Coast, total residential sales last month were 15 percent below the 10-year October sales average. The decline in sales accelerated following the July 25 announcement by the province of an additional 15-percent property tax for foreign buyers in the Lower Mainland.”
http://www.straight.com/news/834276/development-rise-sea-sky-region
“Vancouver Condo Absorption 18% Lower Than Last Year”, Better Dwelling
https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/vancouver-condo-absorption-18-lower-than-last-year/
“Single family homes in Vancouver continued to feel some down pressure, but the condo market appears to be stabilizing. The latest numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) show that prices moved higher, sales dropped, and available inventory is being consumed at a strong pace for the industry.”
The Sun continues its debtathon.
http://vancouversun.com/business/local-business/metro-in-debt-already-underwater-on-debt-here-are-some-suggestions
B.C. Liberals hire new photographer to document Christy Clark
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-liberals-hire-new-photographer-to-document-christy-clark-1.3864508
Speechless. Christy might win it again, in this age of social media and image projection.
Will she be wrapped in a sari or a First Nations blanket and wearing a hard hat?
But that’s racists so says the media on Queens university dressing up party. Unbelievable.
I’m a minority and don’t find that offensive. Brainwashing the Caucasians. Lol
This is actually not so bad…
Half Of Canadian Homeowners Unprepared For Financial Emergency
not surprising given that so many have faith in the govt bailing them out every time a crisis unfolds. the next time around, I expect nothing less
“Get Ready for Higher Interest Rates, Fed Minutes Say”, Fortune
http://fortune.com/2016/11/23/fed-interest-rates-5/
“According to the minutes, most Fed officials said at their November 2nd meeting that it would be “appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate relatively soon.” Furthermore, a significant number of FOMC members think the move should be imminent.”
“Canadians ill-equipped to cope with rising mortgage costs: Survey”, BNN
http://www.bnn.ca/canadians-ill-equipped-to-cope-with-rising-mortgage-costs-survey-1.615364
“A new survey from Manulife Bank of Canada reveals many Canadians are ill-equipped to deal with any increase in their mortgage payments. According to the survey, more than a third of respondents said they would have difficulty making regular payments within three months if the breadwinner of the household lost their job. Additionally, more than 16 per cent said they would struggle with any increase in their current mortgage payment, even if their household employment situation remained unchanged. “
Yes, indeed:
>>The millennial cohort could be among the most exposed, according to the poll, with 83 per cent of respondents aged 20 to 34 carrying mortgage debt. Additionally, 36 per cent of the millennial respondents said mortgage rates are currently too high, despite lending costs being at multi-decade lows. The disconnect may be a case of millennials misunderstanding the source of their monthly fixed costs, according to Manulife Canada Chief Investment Strategist Philip Petursson.
“The survey results may be more reflective of monthly mortgage costs — which are a function of debt and interest rates,” he said in the release. “Perhaps the emphasis is misplaced on interest rates, given the fact that interest rates are at decade lows, as opposed to the real driver of higher mortgage costs, which is housing prices.”<<
They have it backwards. The real driver of high prices is low interest rates. And before anyone argues, he’s talking Canada wide and so am I.
Very true, when the cost of money is low, the prices are driven up because money is cheap and easy to get.
A pocket changed for a local owner…
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/city-of-vancouver-property-taxes-1.3865023
https://www.zolo.ca/vancouver-real-estate/2735-w-8-avenue
Larry’s listing.
$850,000 price reduction!
2735 W8th
Reduced to $1.6M
Assessed as of July 1st, 2015 $1,561,800
“1992 (sic) vintage home” has had that typo since the listing went up. Larry really sweats the details…
2785 W8th
Same sized lot/zoning.
2015 Assessed Value $1,603,000
Sales
June 2016 $2,580,000
Sept 2015$1,530,000
The real big ICBC scam is recent immigrants who were injured in their home country years ago ‘wait’ for an accident and then claim the injury.
In many instances, these people had MRI’s overseas that showed spine disc damage. Then they claim it happened in accident and pocket a huge amount.
Any decent medical review can rule it out. Do ICBC engage experts to look into those claims?
Injury law, medicine, rehab in GVRD is booming trust me injury claims are at all time highs… without this, housing, yoga, coffee and construction all we got is the steam clock to attract $$
Agree with Combat. I am a personal injury lawyer. ICBC absolutely engages orthopaedic surgeons to look into claims both spurious and legitimate. They tend to hire experts with a particular point of view, one that favours the insurance company (not always). “Years old” injuries are apparent with a variety of different diagnostic imaging techniques.
$51K differential between list price and sale price today, in case anyone thinks these higher sales numbers are in any way a bullish sign…
Source: Chipman
High sales can be bullish or bearish. Declining sale prices indicate bearish. With each sale there is a new lower bar set.
High sales are bullish. Period.
Current sales levels are not high (except detached houses in Grandview Woodlands).
Sales numbers at the moment a relatively high relative to what’s expected considering the state of the market, likely due to rising rates.
To argue your point, let’s say there are 300 very very low ball offers out there which the owners laughed at, then tmrw there is a report that China is crashing. Now let’s say the owners all panic and accept the low ball offers and we have a 300+ sales day….should we consider that bullish?
SCMP: Vancouver’s mayor never dreamed foreign-funded housing crisis would get so bad. If only he’d been warned…
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2048798/vancouvers-mayor-never-dreamed-foreign-funded
Hopefully moron goes off soon.
Well, I am sure he never “dreamed” about it, that we cannot prove. So that is a safe statement.
But did he know, or maybe even perhaps see some blaring, in your face indications, maybe perhaps, possibly?
Greggor noticed after he sold all his Vancouver RE. The rental crisis also became more apparent when he had to rent.
Note Christy Clark is renting now but still owns a half duplex. Notable she decided to rent rather than buy/move up. When CC puts her duplex up for sale look out.
Whats CC address .. somewhere near City Hall?
That’s the property she owns but no longer lives in. The place she rents is in Quilchena. Much closer to Junior’s school.
he goes to st george’s which is nowhere near there. they also have their own personal security detail who chauffeur him around anyway, so it really doesnt matter. she moved there to hide from the public. i am guessing she’ll be on the the move again and that kerfoot was not charging anything for rent.
You’d think leaving his wife for a HAM’r would have been a pretty good clue…
What exactly should he have done differently? Done not said, and remember Christy controls CoV’s powers.
For a starter, he could have stopped denying that foreign money was driving prices up. He sounds like a climate-change skeptic. For over a year, he went on and on about racism and anti-chinese sentiment. While rich corrupt chinese millionaires kept hoarding land in Vancouver, through proxies, families and registered companies.
Shame on him for keeping up that act for so long! If only there was a true alternative, rather than development-friendly LaPointe. This city is a very corrupt place.
2505 GEORGIA ST E
2015 Assessed Value: $994,100
Sold Nov 7: $1,000,000
Still hunting for a sale under the 2015 assessed value.
4492 4TH AVE W
2015 Assessed Value: $1.76M
Sold Nov 10: $1.88M
So close….
What’s the majority selling condos?
“In an effort to control rising ICBC insurance rates, Transportation Minister Todd Stone says the province is moving towards no longer insuring high-end luxury cars valued at $150,000 and up.”
Awkward, BC is the place where the most expensive cars are driven by the worst possible drivers.
They failed to mention not only are these cars expensive to repair. …the claims for accelerated depreciation are becoming common place and making payouts on these are costly. IE a 50000 hit on a 150000 car will result in a 25000 loss of value. This is a secret ICBC no wanna comment on
Remember this?
http://www.richmond-news.com/news/thousands-of-illegal-chinese-motorists-could-be-driving-in-richmond-1.947451
Thousands of ‘illegal’ Chinese motorists could be driving in Richmond.
Tinkering with the edges. All Fluff PR BS.
Ban foreign licence holders from insuring cars in Canada.
You can buy a drivers licence in China without a road test.
Most chinese get their licences from fortune cookies.
This new ICBC policy on luxury cars is yet another thinly veiled head tax as the owners will now have to pay double in the private market.
It’s hateful, it’s anti-chinese, it’s yadda yadda yadda and it’s blah, blah blah….
AMIRITE!
The interesting part is clearly the government is targeting a certain group to pay more because it helps their approval. First it was the PPT increased for high value homes, then the foreign buyers tax, now insurance for luxury cars. I bet we get a new tax announcement prior to the election to tax house rich with low incomes (exempting seniors). My prediction is we get something prior to the election that targets the wealthy foreigner/immigrant with low Canadian income. It would be popular, add tax revenue and kick the NDP in the balls.
Nope.
Second that nope. Everything Christy is doing is with the intent of avoiding a real solution, and taxing house rich who don’t pay proportional income taxes is the real solution.
Does that mean 75% of the cars in Richmond will not have insurance?
So, well after the fact, research is now pointing to the fact that the subprime crisis in the U.S.A wasn’t a subprime crisis after all. Apparently, the middle class started believing the hype on ever increasing prices and were just as responsible, if not more responsible than the low income/subprime debacle. “in the run-up to the housing collapse, both credit and defaults expanded proportionally across borrowers of every income level and every credit rating. And yet when the bottom fell out, the researchers found, there was a sharp increase in delinquencies for middle-class borrowers and borrowers with “prime”—or high—credit ratings.” http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/articles/rethinking-how-the-housing-crisis-happened/ “Given that it’s such a systemic event across income groups and especially in the middle class, it points to the fact that households as well as banks really believed in this house price appreciation and thought that it was… Read more »
Sounds right but they were missing a shitload of the offshore money. It is a key component at least in BC real estate sphere and its relationship with people from China and their objectives.
Just a quick note to say that we should expect volume to again be “higher” because of the sudden spike in mortgage rates. Thus – again – we are bringing more of the demand from the future into today’s sales statistics. Volumes have almost been completely flat from August until now. However – what would normally be decreases in volumes are being propped up by those who feel compelled to “beat” the ever increasing restrictions on purchases. So – look for December to be quite slow as well as the beginning of January – – then we will see where this market really is going. When was the last time that March or April was truly dead?
I respectfully disagree with the end result of your thesis. Your analysis is correct in a closed system. However, demand that is vacated in the tail end by moving up demand is more than made up there by the increases in temp/permanent immigration increases we’ve seen over the last 2 years.
Furthermore, for detached, there simply isn’t anymore land near Vancouver proper.
Just give whatever launders and hides the money…
https://www.biv.com/article/2016/11/strata-offices-upswing-among-investors/
People are really naive here in Vancouver. Today on Reddit, people are bitching about ICBC premiums.
Out of 150 plus posts, not one person mentions that 15% of your premium goes to the Autoplan retail store owner. On a $2000 annual bill, $300 pocketed by the owner. The licence for a autoplan store now fetches $1.3 million on the black market.
Having an online system to renew your annual insurance when you want to keep the same coverage as the last year seems like Win win.
But the few hundred people that own these autoplan licences have already got their henchmen in bureaucrat positions within icbc. And I’m sure $$ in envelopes is indirectly going to politicians.
Jusk like how the taxi cartel keeps their plate value at $800,000
With a online system, you would save the $300 or have a lesser charge.
Unless ICBC “covers the cost” of running a online system?
Would you pay $300 extra or $50 extra for ICBC “covering the cost” of running an online system. They can deliver the licence plates to you via the mail.
Oh, and by the way, the date sticker they give you to put on your licence plate….its all a scam to think you need autoplan brokers. They can be printed in any shop plus they serve no purpose as police cars scan your licence plate these days to see if you have insurance.
Scam to brainwash the naive.
Oracle, not arguing, I’m totally with you on this scam.
Online system? How about competition from private companies rather than a government monopoly?
What people should be “bitching about” if the average British Columbian wasn’t a complete idiot, is this clockwork like 2 to 3 yr media reporting cycle of “massive ICBC increases” designed to lube the public into accepting much smaller increases without a whimper. Rinse and repeat, easy, when the media and electorate are complete fools.
If you think that’s a scam, how about Crusty’s Liberals draining crown corps:
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Government+grabbing+cash+from+ICBC+Hydro+they+raise+rates+charges/9527548/story.html
what people dont understand is, is that it’s set up this way to provide enormous incomes to the 80% employees that are women of breeding age. They are made addicted to travel and keeping their wombs barren. Autoplan like Healthcare is a euphemism for BirthControl
License revoked for B.C. broker accused of writing real estate exam for friend.
http://www.cknw.com/2016/11/23/licensed-revoked-for-b-c-broker-accused-of-writing-real-estate-exam-for-friend/
oh.. but I feel no emotion about it. I would say we are used to cheating and corruption in BC now. It is expected. Is it ok for those writing medical exams to cheat too? Fair has to be fair….
Trade with China is literally killing Americans
Commercial Property Sales Soar
Like commercial markets in many cities, offshore money was playing a big role for some time prior to the tax, says Moojan Azizi, managing director of Re/Max Commercial Advantage. He also anticipates an increase.
“Buyers are typically private buyers, a lot of offshore, and whether that’s increased because of the tax, I don’t have the stats yet. But logic would say it’s most likely, because paying [an extra] 15-per-cent tax on residential compared to a commercial property could be a matter of millions of dollars … I know for a fact that offshore money has been pouring into commercial for last few years. That was happening already. But we do anticipate an increase.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/as-vancouvers-housing-market-cools-commercial-property-sales-soar/article32972748/
A great time to buy, huh?
It’s a great time to buy or sell commercial property!
