It would be interesting to develop a program that would scan real estate listings to track key words related to market sentiment and track that over time. I bet that would show up if the data was mined.

A year ago, the sentiment was that price appreciation would slow but that they never go down. That was a shift from the bull market and we’ve seen sentiment deteriorate every month of the past year. I’d say we’re in a very different space than we were a year ago, despite prices not being vastly different. That suggests to me that more pricing downside is coming because sentiment should be a leading indicator.

In what would mark an abrupt and serious escalation of the US-China trade and currency war – if true – is a report from the NY Post according to which the Trump administration, as part of a crackdown on certain US investments made by Chinese companies, is set to seize a majority stake in 850 Third Ave. The stake is owned by HNA, the reeling, quasi-insolvent Chinese conglomerate whose Chairman died in a freak accident in Italy one month ago, and its US partner in the building is desperate to save it.

The “strike” on the HNA building, which is located between East 51st and 52nd streets, has been in the works for months according to the Post and “is believed to be the first move by the Trump White House since Congress on Aug. 1 approved expanded authority of CFIUS — the Committee on Foreign Investors in the United States.”

“This is coming from the White House,” said a source said of the seizure that could ultimately force the sale of HNA’s stake in the 575,000-square-foot building. As a reminder, as part of the CFIUS expansion, it now has purview over foreign real estate interests.

Seize everything from all locusts and deport them.

Don’t you know? That just proves Vancouver will have the mother of all RE bear markets?! According to the brilliant bears on this website who have been outpacing homeowners the last decade by renting.

Over the weekend, Trump claimed on Twitter that the US is winning the trade war with China for one simple reason: whereas US stocks are back to all time highs, the Chinese market has tumbled and remains mired in a bear market. Now, another – less naive – indication has emerged suggesting that the US is indeed getting the upper hand in the ongoing trade feud: according to Reuters, the trade war with the United States is “causing rifts” within China’s Communist Party, with some critics saying that China’s overly nationalistic stance “may have hardened the U.S. position.”

While China’s President Xi still retains his undisputed grip on power, some have noted an unusual surge of criticism about economic policy and how the government has handled the trade war, revealing “rare cracks in the ruling Communist Party.” Specifically, Reuters notes that the backlash is being felt at the highest levels of the government, hitting a close aide to Xi, his ideology chief and strategist Wang Huning.

Naturally, China did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Wang and his relationship with Xi, or on whether China had erred in its messaging in the trade war. But, in a stark confirmation that the ongoing trade war with the US is taking its toll, there is a growing feeling within the Chinese government that the outlook for China has “become grim”, according to a government policy advisor, following the deterioration in relations between China and the United States over trade.

“Many economists and intellectuals are upset about China’s trade war policies,” an academic at a Chinese policy think tank told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “The overarching view is that China’s current stance has been too hard-line and the leadership has clearly misjudged the situation.”

Hu Angang, an economics professor at Tsinghua University and an expert in the field of “Chinese exceptionalism”, is one prominent advocate for the view that China has achieved “comprehensive national power”. However, as the Chinese stock market has tumbled in recent weeks, Hu has faced a public backlash, with critics blaming him for making the United States wary of China by trumpeting and exaggerating its relative economic, technical and military might.

Meanwhile, as official media has in recent days been filled with defiant commentary regarding the United States and the trade war, there have been signs of a shift in China’s messaging, demonstrated mainly by Beijing’s downplaying of Made in China 2025, the state-backed industrial policy that is core to Washington’s complaints about the country’s technological ambitions.

They’re vermin, not hyenas.

Don’t insult hyenas.

In that case, I don’t want reconciliation.

I wan’t everyone to stop whining about past injustices that did not involve them or anyone else alive today.

Some white people did bad things to your great, great grandfather?

Too bad, not my problem. Shut up, I’m not the least bit interested.

And stop passing your never ending sense of victimhood down to your children, idiots!

What an idiot….

That means British Columbia will have to be renamed, as well as Vancouver, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Regina, pretty much every street, river, lake, mountain in the country.

It would be much easier to put all the SJW’s into a giant sack and drown them like kittens.

“Before Oei’s sanctioning by regulators, he was a prominent figure in Metro Vancouver, mentioned in both the New York Times and The New Yorker magazine in 2016 stories about wealthy Chinese elites in Vancouver, or “fuerdai,” a term the Times described as “a Mandarin expression, akin to trust-fund kids, that means ‘rich second generation.’”

“For fuerdai seeking to establish themselves in Vancouver,” The New Yorker reported in 2016, “(Oei) is the go-to fixer and an unofficial ambassador.”

So he’s responsible for Vancouver becoming infested with these vermin.

The guy deserves to be put in front of a firing squad. Is he even in jail?

Sounds like he thinks the tax is working.

Never trust the chinese. The will lie as much as necessary in order to infiltrate or steal.

Same goes for their immigration applications, riddled with lies and fraudulent documentation

The whole tax system needs to be revisited. It’s far too complicated, especially for businesses.

We need to decrease income taxes and business taxes and increase property taxes and sales taxes in my opinion. We shouldn’t be taxing wealth generation and productivity, but rather, we should be taxing consumption. We want to encourage more people to work.

While holding costs of real estate should go up somewhat, I think the other taxes like PTT should be removed. We don’t want people buying homes and borrowing money for 25 years to pay a tax. That’s insane.

Still not sure about where the market is headed Dave?
With price changes almost double of sales, it might be time to lower your stink bids.

Comparative prior year
Sold – 183
Inventory +60 (This year is +124).

I think we may see a good sales day today. Sometimes when the listings are very high, it seems to almost overwhelm the board and they don’t get the sales entered – so the sales then come the next day. Either way, market is bad – – it has been really bad for 3 months and it has not shown any sign of a slight uptick.

Also – back in town for a bit – including family reunion – interesting to hear all the chatter – – will write something later but the short version is that everyone things market is bad and prices will fall now – most agents are telling buying clients to wait.

This NDP government is starting to feel a lot like the last one.