Vancouver Condo Info

Re-diculous posted this link to an article in todays Vancouver Sun about a dramatic drop in consumer confidence in BC.

Consumer confidence in B.C. plunged to its lowest level in five years last month as high energy prices and economic concerns test people’s resolve, the Conference Board of Canada reported Monday.

The board said B.C. consumer confidence fell 9.3 points in June to 94.3 - dropping below 100 for the first time since mid-2003.

The consumer confidence rating across Canada dropped 6.2 points in June to 79.6, following a seven-point drop in May, leaving the second quarter reading at its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 1995 when it was 68.8.

There’s been a lot of buzz in the news about inflation and recession worries lately - could this drop in consumer confidence be blamed on the media?

North America isn’t alone in struggling with the combined challenge of inflationary pressure and economic stagnation.  The fed recently decided to keep interest rates steady, while in the UK they are edging up.  At the same time the ‘credit crunch’ is being blamed for a downturn in Britain as retailers and house builders start to report problems:

The credit crunch hit the high street with a vengeance yesterday as shock figures from Marks & Spencer wiped £4 billion off the value of Britain’s leading retailers.

The grim news from Middle Britain’s favourite store marked a new phase in the economic downturn and threatens the high street with its worst slowdown in 20 years. Adding to the gloom, one of the country’s biggest housebuilders revealed that it was teetering on the brink of collapse. Taylor Wimpey’s value more than halved after it failed to secure rescue funding and said it would cut 900 jobs.

As the global economy is faced with more challenges can BC stay unaffected?

On a side note it’s interesting to see how competition from other locales is showing up in our housing market.  I’ve noticed recently that the ‘for sale’ section of craigslist has been listing a number of properties in Arizona, Florida, California & Ontario.

-thanks to JB for the Times story link.

Canada’s inflation rate hit 2.2% in May, jumping from Aprils official rate of 1.7%.  The dramatic increase is blamed mostly on increasing fuel cost:

Statistics Canada said gas prices rose 15 per cent in May from a year earlier, up from a year-on-year pace of 11.6 per cent in April. Excluding gasoline prices, the 12-month growth in the CPI in May was 1.6 per cent, it said.

Meanwhile core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices and which the central bank monitors for underlying price pressures, rose 1.5 per cent in May from the same month last year - the same pace as the 12-month increase in April.

“Lower prices for passenger vehicles dampened the upward pressure on the core index,” the agency said.

Last week, the Bank of Canada surprised markets by not cutting its key interest rate and expressing concern over growing inflationary pressures. The key rate remains at three per cent.

Thursday’s CPI number surpassed the central bank’s two per cent target.

Most economists had expected May’s inflation rates would be around 1.9 per cent.

We could always deal with inflationary concerns the way Argentina does - They’ve managed to maintain a remarkable 0.6% official inflation rate in May thanks to the innovative way they calculate the figure:

According to the new methodology, every time a product’s price rises too sharply, it will simply be removed from the index on the ground that consumers will be deterred by the expense and switch to other goods.

A couple of economic bad news stories posted by Via on this weekends Friday Free-for-all post: The spring selling season so far has us looking at a very different market from previous years. Sales have dropped and inventory has risen dramatically, at the beginning of June we’re looking at close to 18,000 listings for sale in Vancouver. As it becomes harder to sell the number of foreclosures have doubled in the lower mainland:

Kap Hiroti, who tracks Lower Mainland foreclosures at ForeclosureList.ca, says foreclosures stand at 20 per week, up from 10 per week in 2006.

“For one reason or another, they didn’t pay the mortgage, or insurance, or property tax,” says Hiroti, who advises real estate owners looking to foreclose or prospective buyers looking to buy a foreclosed property. “Or they get behind in their strata or condo fees, or face a one-time cost such as a roof or a leaky condo, which might set them back 40, 50 or 60 thousand dollars.”

…

Hiroti believes the Lower Mainland real-estate market has “flatlined,” meaning investors who were counting on making a profit no longer see an upside.

As a result, some have chosen to lose their investments through foreclosure rather than hanging on with no sign of a significant upside return.

“They were kind of speculating that the market would go up, but when the market flatlines, some people just choose to get out. Local people are getting priced out of the market.”

At the same time BCs unemployment rate has been creeping up - the jobless rate is now at 4.5% as positions are lost in trade, transportation and agriculture. The unemployment rate is particularly high for young people at 8.8% and for recent immigrants with an unemployment rate of 9.8%.

The bright point in the jobs data remains construction which has been the key driver in the BC jobs market for the last 5 years. The question is: how long can you have a jobs market driven by construction?

From the ’sun predicted to set’ department of todays Province comes this article: BC developer warns of cooling condo market.

B.C.’s development industry must be nimble, disciplined and well-financed to survive the cooling of the provincial market, a veteran developer says.

The Lower Mainland has yet to experience the full impact of the U.S. housing slowdown and the troubles sweeping the Interior’s forest sector, Concert Properties president David Podmore said yesterday.

“I do think you’re going to see a continued slowing of our economy as . . . what’s happening in the Interior and the U.S. spill over,” Podmore told a conference on the future of B.C.’s housing industry.

“You’re going to have to really sharpen your skills to be successful and to compete effectively.”

Podmore said developers should stop relying on pre-sales, which he called a phenomenon of the past eight to 10 years.

The market is heading into a period where projects may take half-a-year to sell out, he said.

Disciplined developers will pull the plug on projects if it becomes clear they can’t succeed, he said.

There will be opportunities for well-financed developers to take over idled projects - but they must be fast on their feet, he said.

The ‘pulling of plugs’ has already started to happen on some projects like the Eden group Elyse.  Those that don’t pull the plug when they can get it pulled for them and go into recievership Sophia, H+H, Gardencity, etc.  There’s good news though, as the US housing slowdown continues it’s forecast that material prices will moderate.

Even after years of falling real estate prices in Miami it’s still cheaper to rent than to buy according to this article in the Wall Street Journal, sent in by bcbuds.  As prices are falling so are rents.

It’s a dilemma for owners, do you try to wait out a recovery and pour money into the condo you’ve got rented out at a loss, or do you stop the bleeding and sell in a down market?  Many are choosing to wait out the market and hoping for a recovery soon.

…But that has created a new, predictable situation. “Rents are falling,” says Miami broker Leslie Cooper. “You and your brother and everyone else is trying to rent your new condo out. So no wonder. But the rents won’t even cover your costs.”

I looked a number of fabulous condos in new developments on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami. Their prices had been slashed drastically from peak levels. Some are now in forced sales.

You can get a two-bedroom condo in some places for $400,000 or less. And that’s considered a great deal.

Of course the problem is that even these reduced prices aren’t justified by the rental income.  The article goes on to examine the numbers- even if you aren’t renting the money and have the $400k cash interest free to buy one of these condos it’s still a losing proposition in a post-boom era of property depreciation.

RBC has released a report on the saving and spending habits of Canadians, apparently we’re saving less than ever, with more Canadians relying on credit cards, loans and mortgages.

Canadians are not prepared - and not preparing - for a rainy day, like an economic downturn, a major bank is warning.

The vast majority of Canadians admit they’re poor savers, with barely one-half having a rainy-day account. And of those, only half have enough to cover a month’s expenses, RBC said Wednesday in releasing results of a spring survey of the saving and spending habits of Canadians.

–

“One need only look at the newspapers or television to see that North America is in an economic downturn,” said Ashif Ratanshi, senior vice-president, RBC Branch Investments and Banking.

“This is the time for Canadians to re-assess their own finances and ensure they are effectively managing their money so that they can withstand any sudden pitfalls or changes in their lives.”

I’ve already run a poll on savings and income that indicates most readers here are in the minority, but since the RBC reports refers specifically to a rainy-day account I’ll pose this question:

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Are you priced out of the Vancouver real estate market? According to the Province, you’re not the only one.  The weekend the Province ran a series of articles on the costly local real estate market:

So who’s buying? 

The answer is anyone with one or more of the following: wealthy boomer parents, equity from previous real estate or extremely high double-income earnings.

But even with those prerequisites, many are stretching their limits.

“Everybody maxes,” says Marty Pospischil, a realtor with Dexter Realty specializing in the west side.

The profile of a typical buyer of a $1.3-million, three-bed, two-bath west-side home is a couple between 35 and 45 years old with one or two young children. They are both professionals who have ascended the ranks — think stockbroker, lawyer, doctor.

They will usually have a down payment of $400,000 to $500,000 — derived from a combination of personal equity, inheritance or a substantial gift from a wealthy boomer parent, says Pospischil.

That means they’re still borrowing between $800,000-$900,000.

Expectations clash with reality:

With the income-to-house-price ratio the highest it’s ever been in B.C., the overwhelming perception — particularly in Vancouver — is that the market has changed the definition of “middle class” and displaced the working poor.

It is increasingly common to see children raised in condos, married couples living in their parents’ basements, young professionals taking on second jobs, workers commuting long hours, the growth of the 40-year mortgage (which 65 per cent of first-time buyers are now using, according to a RE/MAX report) and the realization for some that an inheritance is the only way to a single-family home.

Tsur Somerville: its not a bubble:

“If you say bubble, then at some point it’s going to pop. And if you look at our price increases, they’ve been double-digit, but for the most part they’ve been between 11 to 15 per cent for the past few years. That’s high, but in a bubble you start to see 20-per-cent growth, 30-per-cent growth. Just really rapid acceleration, and we haven’t seen that. That’s what happened in 1981 and 1982 . . . That’s what a bubble looks like.”

Reader feedback:

John: There’s no point complaining about prices. I think people should focus their energy on how they can find new ideas/businesses/solutions to generate more income. If you spend all your time complaining you won’t have enough time thinking about new businesses that can work and make more money!

Here’s a more bullish counterpoint to ‘Chicken little’ Lereah’s opinion that the US housing market is in for more pain - The Wall Street Journal is declaring that after 3 years of decline the US housing bust is over.

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won’t happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.

Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what’s going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.

Thanks to BCbuds for the link (which will expire in 7 days)

Thanks to ‘exx’ for posting the link to this story - According to statscan the median income in BC has been steadily dropping despite the ‘boom’ we’re currently in.  Younger Canadians in general are now earning much less than their parents did and paying a greater percentage of their income for housing.

New census data this morning shows the median income for full time workers in BC is a little over $42,000 a year, which is a drop of over 3% since 2000 and it’s down 11% since 1980 when you take inflation into account.

That’s surprising given BC’s higher than average employment growth. Statistics Canada says young people seem to be having a harder time finding full-time work after getting out of school, and those who do tend to make lower wages.

So more people are at work, but they’re earning less money at a time when housing, energy and food costs are spiraling out of control. How is this going to all work out and what effect will it have on future real estate prices in Vancouver?